Back in Ho Chi Minh/Saigon ... Xin Chao

Back in the land of motorbike rivers, horns beeping continuously, sidewalk dining at pho cafes, throngs of people in seemingly every square inch of the city ...... lining the streets are shops of every description, selling every sort of gizo imaginable ..... ladies selling fruits and vegetables, balancing bamboo baskets over their shoulders ..... I am amazed at how familiar and comfortable I am with the enslaught of this daily street scene ..... I meet up with the next stage of my time in Vietnam at the charming Viet Dong Hotel on the outskirts of the city center .... A robust group of Australians, a British couple, and our incredibly funny guide, Huy ..... he almost had me in stitches at our first meeting ..... loves to ramble off jokes, almost always forgetting the punch line, but laughing with gusto anyway .... it is impossible not to join in .... we rarely concern ourselves with the contents of the joke, join in and are soon rolling in the aisles of the bus, laughing along with him .... his absolutely delightful, childlike sense of humor is simply contagious. In his late twenties, a tiny fellow up to my shoulder in height and feels more like a young son to all of us then our guide and leader! But competent and capable he is beyond a doubt .... an only child to an engineer father and a teacher mother, who are both a tad concerned that their child has yet to find a wife .... they have told him if this does not happen before his 32 birthday, they will find a wife for him themselves! So, bare in mind the company I keep on this tour ....... a bunch of Australians with jovial dispositions, where the daily atmosphere is rich in humor and laughter blooms with regularity ..... our down under folks are totally devoid of any form of arrogance or pretentious attitudes even though they share a similar confidence to that of Americans. They don't take themselves too seriously :) ...... As a group, we have decided to play matchmaker for Huy and someone regularlyintroduces a young pretty Vietnamese maiden to Huy, who blushes and runs! We are all having great fun with the matchmaker distraction from our daily tourist roles :) !! Yes, I am having a great time on this little overland tour of Vietnam :) Hope my pictures post well .... back to crazy traffic in Ho Chi Minh/Saigon ..... and back to what one sees carted on motorcyles on a daily basis ..... quite amazing really ....... enjoy the images!! Oh, yes, the dog in the picture is being taken to a dog restaurant (strays are regularly caught, delivered live, and voila, finder has money to live that day!!) ..... a speciality here in Vietnam! Unless dog meat is something you are wishing to have a go at, stay away from anything with a sign "Nha Hang Cho" while in Vietnam :) ..... Vietnamese believe the wisdom of the dog will rub off when they eat the darling creatures! I have always had a tendency for vegetarian food preferences and I do believe those preferences are now solidified! I cannot even contemplate eating meat of any kind, perhaps never again. Cats, horses, dogs, possibly even rats, although no one confirms this, are all regular protein fare here. This is probably no more insane than our mass consumption of cows in the Western world :) One day, I saw a truck load of dogs .... dozens of them, all squished in every direrction in the back, caged ..... I cried as I passed the truck, so disturbing it was for me ..... did the same when a truckload of pigs passed by a few days later as I walked the streets of Saigon ..... this kind of scene is not whitewashed as it is in our country ..... it is all out there for anyone to view. It just seems kinder to eat veggies, grains and beans ..... I still consume unborn baby chickens though, for a boost of protein .... that may be next on my hit list :)

Pictures are motorbike delivery items, me in a fake Cu Chi tunnel and picture of tiny Denise

in the real one ..... the park scene is view from my hotel room in Ho Chi Minh/Saigon .... lovely

park outside, where locals do their various exercises in the early morning (I discovered this one morning when I could not sleep, walked outside around five to discover hundreds of Vietnamese in the park area) .... badminton is a favourite as are varying kinds of stretching, tai chi etc. .... all before 6 a.m., before the sun makes it's appearance, along with the millions of motorbikes and resultant pollution, hence the early morning exercise :) Tam Biet