Vietnam Saigon - Day 2 (July 7, 2010)

In the morning, we briefly encounter the mayor of the HCM City in the hotel lobby.

He also lives in this nation-owned Kỳ Hòa (圻和 / Peace) Hotel.

The Vietnamese for hotel is 'khách sạn'
(which rhymes with 客栈).

In the Historical Museum of Vietnam
(Bảo Tàng Lịch Sử Việt Nam;
literally, 宝藏-历史-越南),



we see

* a Vietnamese royal order (圣旨) brush-written in Chinese (儒字or漢字), which was used during their monarchical days

* a portrait of Alexandre de Rhodes, the priest from France, who Romanized the Vietnamese language, in the 17° century.

It became Quốc Ngữ (国语/national language, adopting Portuguese alphabets) beginning in the 1920s

The tour bus then takes us to a handicapped handicrafts workshop.

Half a million children were born with defects, because their parents have been exposed to Agent Orange (落叶剂) during the Vietnam War (1961-1971).


Click here, for a Wiki summary on Agent Orange

Some of those deformed children, who survive and have good hands, are trained to make handicrafts, which are beautiful (as seen here) but expensive (to support the other totally disabled as well.)

As in French, adjectives go after nouns ---

e.g. 'áo dài' (pronounced 'ao yai') means 'coat big' literally, or big coat (大袄/越南旗袍).

e.g. 'mu tre' means 'hat bamboo' literally, or bamboo hat (竹帽).



Here's a video showing beautiful 'ao dai' and 'mu tre', with a Vietnamese song in the background.

Next, the tour bus drops by a hawker center called Da Vu Quan (夜雨馆), which has a courtesy WC.

(Reminder: 'Da' is pronounced 'Ya'.)

There, bamboo hats (mu tre) are on sale.

NAM

NỮ

You won't have problems reading Vietnamese, and telling a boys' room and a girls' room apart?




  
The tour bus finally brings us to Vũng Tàu (头顿), a peninsula 110 km to the north-east of the HCM City. Vũng Tàu has traditionally been a significant port; you see, 'tàu' means head or pier (头/马头).
   
"It now plays a significant role in Vietnam's offshore oil industry. It is the only petroleum base of Vietnam where crude oil and natural gas exploitation activities dominate the city's economy and contribute principal income to Vietnam's budget and export volume."  - Wikipedia
 

Vũng Tàu has beautiful Hawaiian-like beaches alluring previously the French colonists, then the American marines, then the Russians, and now us.
 
We are staying at this Sammy Hotel on the Paradise Beach, with beautiful views of the South China Sea, which Vietnam recently renames to the East Sea, after rich under-ocean oil fields have been detected.

Looking to the North,

to the East,

and to the South

which has a 32-meter statute of Jesus Christ on top of the 170-meter Nho Mount (grape mount / 耶稣山).






After 800+ panting steps under the sultry sun.

... and another 100+ steps on the spiral staircase inside the statue 


... to reach a narrow opening above either shoulder of the statue. 

Overseeing the city of Vũng Tàu, over the shoulders of the statue.....

Taking 900+ steps downwards is, of course, much easier ....

The status is a stairwell.

A fleet of tricycles is waiting

... to take us to watch the sunset at Bãi Trước (Front Beach).

I buy some ripe Mãng Cầu Xiêm (soursop/釋迦 aka 番鬼荔枝), and exchanged half-half with another tourist who buys some Chôm Chôm (rambutan/红毛丹).

Later, back to the hotel room, and after consuming 2 delicious soursops, the tour guide phones me to relate a warning not to eat them, because the other tourist uncovers many worms in them. Too late, lah. 


However, I do not feel bad, as worms are rich in protein.

We also buy beer and snacks, as the World Cup (GER v ESP) will be on, 01:30 local time.










So, I miss watching the next sun-rise. :-(
The other (worm-uncovering) tourist goes for a pre-dawn swim, and later shows me the most beautiful sun-rise photos I've ever seen !!  As McArthur said, I shall return.