Empty Nesters on a Green Global Trek

Saigon, aka Ho Chi Minh City is a city infamous for the domination of streets by an unending stream of motorcycles.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Saigon.

French built train station.

Another way to look at Saigon is to focus on the American War.  This is frankly a much harsher approach, best evidenced by the War Remnants Museum.  NEVER, have we seen such a graphic display of war.  Perhaps it is because of the direct, non-censored approach.  Some might look at the museum and say it’s because of the “propaganda” approach of the Communist government.  But propaganda, typically, is about something that is not accurate, or is amplified.

This museum is primarily a collection of photographs.  Realistic, uncensored and very tragic photographs, which we selected not to reflect in our blog… The effect of Agent Orange, which is known as a practice of the U.S. military to defoliate Vietnamese forests in search of enemy combatants. But we had no visual understanding of just how hideous this chemical was in terms of its results, not just in the immediacy and in the theater of war, but in the entire country and for decades to follow.  Agent Orange infiltrates the system and demolishes normal genetic patterns, so that when seemingly healthy Vietnamese, years after the war, had children… the results were monstruous deformities. Enough said… Heart wrenching.

A photo of an American plane spraying Agent Orange from its base in Saigon.

A comparison of World War 2, Korean War and American War in terms of US troop commitment and statistics connected with the wars.

OK, time to change gear and return to more pleasant aspects of Saigon, its street life and the markets…

One of the many rivers, with small housing at its edge and the city behind.

One of multiple fruit warehouses which line the river and continue to depend on boat deliveries to feed the population of Saigon.

A man walks the “gang plank” with bunches of bananas from the incoming delivery boat.

A small sugar cane processing warehouse. Adam tries his hand at cleaning the sugar cane.

The third way to “see” Saigon, is through the prism of its Chinese heritage.

A small pagoda in central Saigon.

A resident monk invites us to receive the vibrations from the ringing of the huge bell in the pagoda.

Great timing, as we walk into the pagoda, a resident monk invites us to experience the vibrations of the enormous bell he is in the process of striking… by sitting directly under it! Very interesting that, while it is a bell, it is rung, or rather “struck” more like a gong.  The sound reverberating is extremely loud and the vibrations are beautiful, particularly from underneath.

Calming effect of being under the huge bell, to get the benefit of the strongest vibrations.

Adam and monks, exchanging social media information.

A corner of ancestors including the offering of food to make sure the ancestors don’t get hungry.

Walking through the narrow alleyways in District 4.

A super sized, super heavy jack fruit.

Of course, when possible, the best is to get glimpses of Viet Nams’ own history, without the French, the U.S. or the earlier Chinese influences.  And this is best done by visiting the Herbal Medicine FITO Museum, a gem of an archive of ancient Vietnamese medicinal practices.

A painting of a herbal medicine doctor assessing a woman’s health from her pulse and appearance.

Small ceramic statue of Vietnamese traditional herb doctor.

The Fito Museum in Saigon houses an excellent collection of old tea pots and tea storage containers, used for medicinal herbal teas.

Very large ceramic jar for storing dried herbs and teas. The lotus flower, decorating the urn, has many healing properties.

Ceramic jar of about 3 foot high, for storing herbal medicines.

The two most significant Vietnamese doctors who 700 years ago wrote the largest ever (and still authoritative), encyclopedia of over 5,000 distinct Vietnamese herbs, bark, plants, flowers and their impact on the human body.

Final sights in Saigon… a shocking pink church… and, of course, one last scrumptious bite…

A shocking pink  church in the center of Saigon.

A little girl keeps herself occupied in her mother’s sewing workshop.

Saigon style (ie much larger) Ban Xeo. Vietnamese crispy pancakes. Similar to what you can find in U.S. Vietnamese restaurants. However, we prefer the smaller, crispier ban xeo found in Central and Northern Viet Nam.

An actual restaurant! We stumble upon  “Hum” a lovely vegetarian restaurant. Yay, finally a real green salad (Peta).