Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon) Vietnam

Saigon or Ho Chi Mihn as it's called now I will use either here as the same. What a crazy place this is. A lot has changed since we were here about seven years ago and a lot has remained the same. Side note: The pool crew is a little late getting up today as we met them late last night just outside the ship at a little bar. Bought them some beer and when we left we left some money to buy them many more, good to be in good with the crew! Had a little argument with the bartender as he wanted to charge $2 per beer for Tiger over the $1 for Saigon beer and they had just ran out of Saigon. Left that argument up to Rommel to deal with. Many more cars now than last time but the same masses of scooters you deal with everywhere including crossing the street. We got on the first shuttle bus to town center and as we neared our destination a ?herd? of Kangaroos went by on scooters. Apparently the roos couldn't see very well as we saw two of them collide and one went down on his roo butt. No worries as they were going slow so just some roo embarrassment. They were doing marketing for Jet Star and Aussie airline. The trip up the river was a highlight of the cruise. We went up many different channels with all kinds of boat traffic from personal wooden boats to huge container ships. Crossed under bridges it looked like we would hit but didn't and had tight turns to maneuver. Good job Captain! Many aggregate hauling barges looked like they were about to sink they were so overloaded. After a morning of downtown market for Dawn and crossing streets (great fun) for Bill and Paul we went to the rooftop of the Rex hotel and had a beer and a little pizza ($240,000).

Janaka our butler had told us you could get a haircut just outside the ship area at port for US $5 and a massage for $10 so Bill and I checked it out. Had to cross a very busy street first so waited for the walk signal. When green we proceeded only to be met with a hoard of scooters coming our way on their turn signal when we were half way across, stay calm my friend and we didn't blink but shook in our pants but made it, wow. Expecting a tourist up charge at the barber shop I asked first and yes only $5. I sat and got a towel and barber wrap then he come up behind me with a trimmer and holly cow I thought I was going to join the military as I yelled STOP RIGHT NOW! Got that sorted out then later as he approached me with a straight razor I said NO WAY but got that figured out too. May not need a haircut for a long while now. Bill got better treatment and for the five we both got head massages too.

Had a Good Evening Saigon dinner tour that started with a roof top bar at the Majestic Hotel with dancers and singers. then went on to a local restaurant which was good but only had chopsticks to work with so didn't over eat. We may have to limit our food intake to chopsticks only but Bill is getting good with them although he violates the rules and pokes some items. Actually he broke one stick last night somehow but managed to carry on with one short one. During dinner I went out for a smoke break and Bill went with to see some of the interesting sights around and we ended up having a beer with the Heineken lady across the street at a bar. I have a new favorite song as of last night. Ylvis-What does the fox say. Google it, it's funny.

Saigon Dinner

River barge

Roos invading Ho Chi Mihn