Saigon Day2

OK, I'll admit that I'm a day behind in my posts--largely from exhaustion.  I fell asleep early last night from a day of a lot of walking.  I'm also including some photos from Day 1 that Nancy took, like the one above.  I think she captured a few of the parents who made the trip to join their kids.  They were excited.  Before we left the ship we also got to see a short demonstration dance by some kids from "Cambodia's Hope", a school for orphans that was started by one of our staff--Marvel Harrison. The kids performed beautiful traditional dances.

 Students have been collecting shampoos and toiletries from any hotel where they stayed to donate to the school.

On our second day ashore in Saigon, we happened on a concert that was going on outside the Opera House.  The music was mostly traditional and was gorgeous to hear.

 

It's nice that they are sustaining the traditional music and instruments.

It was also interesting to note the except for a few of us in chairs, most of the audience was perched on motorbikes for this outdoor performance.

Speaking of motorbikes, I've developed a fascination with them, and I've started to collect shots of things they carry.  Like propane cylinders.

 

Or people.  Hey, isn't that Nancy on the back of that motorbike! She went by the tailor to check on her jacket, and they didn't have the fabric she needed, so the folks in the shop offered to take her to the market to pick up some fabric, and their mode of transportation just happened to be the motorbike.  You won't catch me doing that.

Some of us visited the "Independence Palace" . It was the former presidential palace, and the President of South Vietnam surrendered when a tank drove through the gates in 1975.  There is a replica tank outside. The inside is mostly exhibits of the way the building looked at the time and pictorial presentations giving the North Vietnam version of the end of the war and the re-unification as the south was liberated.

We also checked out the Notre Dame Cathedral.  Then, after a super cup of Vietnam Iced Coffee with some friends, I headed back to the ship, walking while Nancy did a little more shopping.  I wanted to see what kind of walk it was, and I did get a little lost--making the trip longer than expected.

 

The 95 degree temp had sapped our strength,so we were happy to have dinner on the ship.

So far, (knock on wood) we have not seen a single mosquito--probably because we have been religious about our anti-malarial meds.