Vietnam Saigon - Day 1 (July 6, 2010)

Landing ......

Landing in Vietnam .....

Landed at the city of Ho Chi Minh.

In 1975, North Vietnam and South Vietnam re-unified, and the city of Saigon (Sài Gòn /西贡) was renamed to Ho Chi Minh city (Hồ Chí Minh / 胡志明市), after Uncle Ho.

Still, unofficially, the locals continue to call this city Saigon.

(Those Chinese who speak the Chao Zhou dialect [潮州话] would pick up the Vietnamese language quite easily.)

During their monarchial days, they wrote in Chinese.

In early 20th century, the French occupiers imposed the Roman alphabets, without f, j, w and z, but with some vowels accented; the Vietnamese continues to use them now.

Click here, to see the Vietnamese alphabets on Wikipedia.

Have a good day, Vietnam!

This evening, I go to bed as a millionaire

..... with VND 1.1 million

..... exchanging with HKD 500.

..... from the local tour guide (Cantonese-speaking Vietnamese-born Chinese)


Haha! Sweet dreams!

P.S. VND is Vietnamese Dong, where đồng means copper, as in copper money (铜钱).