Port 20 Saigon, Vietnam

by Ed · June 10, 2025

Greetings! Xin chao!

Today is April 15th, 2024. (For those who have forgotten, yes, this is for 2024. I’m a year behind in finishing these blogs!)

Once again, we get to overnight at another port, so you’ll see two days of activity in this blog!

The sun peeks up above the ocean as we approach the Vietnam shoreline.

We have a serene entry, following a lengthy river entering the Saigon area. Beautiful, tall trees line the shore!

The channels are marked, and we have a ship to follow in, and pass ships heading out.

Interesting buildings begin to appear as we approach Saigon, a.k.a. Ho Chi Minh City!

We approach our spot at the dock, home away from home for the next 36 hours.

Looking at the waters below us, swimming has been cancelled…

Now we can see the Service Center that we’ll go through when we leave the ship. We’ll look for a Tourist Information desk there.

Neither of us have a tour today, so we take advantage of the opportunity to do some shopping! We head ashore and see this lovely sign next to our ship!

Sharing our dock is the Elisa, a lovely floating restaurant dressed out like a Chinese junk!

A little farther is another floating restaurant, the Pearl of the Orient.

We stop at the Tourist Information counter and Joy asks about finding some silk dress shops she saw online. The man behind the desk, Toan, asks us to call him Ted, and pulls up the information. He writes down the addresses on our map and shows us about where they are located on the map. Then he walks out with us and helps us get a ride with a Grab driver – the local Uber! Our driver is Yuk. I am amused at the chaos I see on the street!

Saigon has its share of shiny new and interesting buildings! Is that a helipad? Yup – it’s the Saigon Skydeck!

Our first stop is a shop called Bai Silk. Lo’an, the shopkeeper, assists Joy, and Joy finds the gifts she wants. Her money is ready! Her find – a beautiful “Ao Dai” dress for Ana, the Restaurant Manager on the ship!

Enroute to the next shop, it appears we are watching the start of a race! This intersection is far better behaved that the chaos we saw earlier! Ready! Set! …

We had quite the adventure finding the next shop. Yuk drove all around as we counted off building numbers. We parked and started walking, and found it on the back side of a building in an alley! There was a sign at the door saying we could only enter if we have an appointment! Well, we didn’t have one, but they still let us in! Here Joy found some silk fabrics she really liked, and had Vietnamese Ao Dai dresses made for herself and our friend Bela in Florida!

Back on the road we see this humorous scene – traffic is stalled as the motorcyclist tries to help the wood vendor maneuver his cart through a busy intersection!

A giant blue bear is seen trying to enter this toy store!

We return to the ship to prepare for our evening tour to see Saigon at Night.

We board the bus and find our tour guide is Toan (“Ted”) – the man who helped us with the silk shop addresses earlier! He tells us we are heading out for a drink and to see the oldest 5-star show in Vietnam! Then we’ll go to another location for dinner.

Hotel Majestic is our venue for the first stop tonight!

We are whisked up to the rooftop and are seated around a stage full of musicians and dancers!

We are served drinks while we are entertained by dancing and singing. Here the dancers perform a beautiful hand fan dance!

The event wraps up with several of our shipmates being tapped to join the stage and given instruments to assist the musicians! Justin is on the left, and Helen is on the right. (They’ll join us for dinner later!)

The entertainment wraps up and we have a few minutes to look around at the night sights! The views are simply stunning!

City lights are beautiful over the water!

The traffic lights up the streets!

We also have a closer view of that interesting Saigon Skydeck building with the helicopter landing pad.

We head to our dinner spot – the restaurant Mandarine!

We are led to the back to this cozy space! A piano and a couple of violins fill the space with lovely music! Joy and I head to the open table in the back. It’s nice – it is on a small platform so we have a great view of the entire room!

Justin and Helen join us at the table. (They are friends, not a couple.) The food arrives in family-style plates! Spinach! Duck! Fried Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf! Beef (in Bamboo – removed – see the next photo)!

The winner is the carrot teapot and cup on the Beef in Bamboo plate!

Dessert includes a beautifully presented fruit plate!

Our second day is April 16th, 2024, and is our tour day! Joy and I have separate tours today. Joy is going directly to see the Cu Chi Tunnels, and I am going on a “Good Morning, Vietnam!” tour.

The tour guide on my tour is Tony. He tells us about General Tran leading the Vietnamese to victory against the Mongolians in the 13th century. We pass the statue of General Tran – Tran Hung Dao, a royal prince considered by some to be a demi-god.

This sign makes me laugh! The store is a home goods store, but I like the sign!

We pass by an air defense installation in the middle of town! Tony tells us he is from the town of My Lai (pronounced “mee-lie”). You may recall this town was the site of a massacre committed by a US Army platoon. Tony let us know he lost seven family members in that massacre. It’s a wonder why he even wants to be around Americans.

Our first stop is at an artisan shop. They specialize in inlay work, and you can see their themes here.

We witness part of the process they use for creating the inlays.

Next to their water bath is this board explaining the steps they take to fabricate their beautiful pieces. Not trivial!

I am amazed to find this book in their giftshop! Tintin is everywhere!

Many roadside pools revealed the beautiful lotus blossoms that grow wild and are revered in this country! This is the national flower! It grows in dirty water, yet produces the most beautiful bloom. The Vietnamese people feel they are the same!

We arrive at the Cu Chi Tunnels site. We hang out in the gift shop while Tony gets our tickets. I am astounded by the clever use of shell casings to make these jets and tanks!

Tickets in hand, we head down the tunnel to the Cu Chi Tunnel displays!

Cu Chi is actually a recognized underground village, one of the 24 districts of Saigon!

We arrive at the first display. Believe it or not, there is a tunnel entrance in front of us! Can you see it?

Here it is! See the little horizontal piece of wood in the previous photo? That’s the back edge of the hole. OMG it’s tiny!

But this man shows us how it’s done!

I’m amazed! He drops straight down, then lifts the camouflage cover over his head!

His shoulders easily clear, as well as his hat!

And he’s gone!

We are shown a termite mound, and told they use the termite mounds to create ventilation shafts for the tunnels. No one suspected the mounds are part of the network!

This display shows us many of types of booby traps the Viet Cong used against the enemy. These are all simple and horrible! Let’s look at a couple.

This one is called the Clipping Armpit Trap. The horizontal position of the trap helps hold up the masking leaves and grasses. A body falling through flips the long nails up, piercing the victim in the sides and armpits. Ouch!

The Rolling Trap uses the victim’s body against him. As feet push down on the horizontal nails the vertical nails rotate around to pierce and rip the legs, then hips, then sides, shoulders, and heads! Argh. There are six more, all equally diabolical.

Now it’s time for us to experience a tunnel! We step down into an anteroom and wait for a guard to go down first.

No more steps! We have to drop down into the hole. Thank goodness for the light here!

We are told the tunnel is actually taller than the real tunnels – they enlarged them for tourists. How much larger? No one could tell us.

They turn out the light – this is the way the real tunnels were!

On the other side the guard turns the light back on to take our picture! My thighs are burning! And I’m glad I have my hat, or my head would be severely bruised!

We have one final hole to pull ourselves up, then metal steps to leave the lower level and back into fresh air!

Walking through the Viet Cong village there are multiple huts displaying the activities of daily life during the Vietnam Conflict. This includes kitchens, bomb making areas, laundry areas, dining rooms, and this meeting room with placards identifying who sat at the table.

Leaving the Cu Chi Tunnels for our next stop, we pass this major traffic circle. But the traffic is light and tame! Very different from other countries we have already seen!

Our next stop is at the War Remnants Museum! The US left a lot of hardware behind when the forces pulled out (sound familiar?). This museum collected a lot of that hardware.

We begin with a Chinook helicopter!

Next is a M-41 Tank!

This bell was made from a 500-lb bomb! It was created to provide a bell to a pagoda that was being rebuilt after being damaged by bombs. An unexploded bomb was cut open and inscribed around the sides with the four symbols for spring, summer, fall, and winter.

This is an F-5A jet fighter.

Here we have the A-1 Skyraider!

I have about 20 additional photos of hardware outside, but I won’t boar you with that. Let’s move inside!

The displays inside are a total propaganda blitz! This museum is incredible, given its small size! This conflict was not popular with anyone, and most of the displays were condemnations of the US’s involvement. We were pretty much all alone with our involvement.

This is the bottom line…

Happy to be out of that museum, we begin our journey back to the ship.

The one building I looked forward to seeing is under renovation. Rats! This is the Immaculate Conception Cathedral Basilica, also known as the Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon!