Saigon Sights and a Hi, There to Cousin Jack

I have always admired/had an interest in bonsai. My cousin Jack has been growing/ sculpting/ tending/ loving or whatever one does with bonsai for years.

Personally, I know little about them except I think they are amazing to behold as well as require tremendous efforts to care for.

I have seen many bonsai in Saigon - attached pics #24 and #25 are examples. They are NOT the much smaller, countertop versions one normally sees. The explanation for their larger "park versions" is that they are true bonsai but are grown larger for display in public areas <- larger to deter thieves from stealing them. I see "gardener care takers" tending to them daily.

More FAQs;

Did you get great exchange rate for the US$2 bills that you took with you?
Background - before leaving US I was told this would be the case - so I brough $600 in new $2 bills with me. Answer = I got a little better exchange rate - but only a little. So, I have saved them and give them as gifts to "fiends". I make. Those I've given them to have all been very appreciative because they are so rare here and considered to be very good luck.

Is smoking abundant?
I found that surprisingly it is not. Less than a third of the people I see on streets are smoking. There are restaurants and even coffee cafes that will not allow you to smoke inside (where there is AC) - smoking allowed only in their outdoor seating area (no AC - which represents a strong deterent to Western smokers in hot/sticky Saigon.

Given all the traffic - isn't pollution a major problem in HCMC?
Surprisingly not despite 4M+ motorbikes! I have concluded that this probably because of the daily albeit short-duration downpours. Air quality here is as good if not better than downtown DC.

Are the girls' marriage propositions you described serious or just flirtations?
Many, especially wait staff and female patrons I run into in cafes and on the streets, are, for the most part very flirtatious and open. Are they serious? The relatively few VN I am actually able to converse with say they are serious as a heart attack and state that all I have to do is follow-up, e.g., present a dinner or coffee/cafe invitation. At this point in time - I'm too cowardly and shy to "follw-up". BUT I certainly do not mind and recipricate flirtations!

Are you going to be able to leave for the next country since you're having such a wonderful experience in Vietnam? Would you marry Linh and stay in the country?
Afraid that I will move on - but will first ask Linh if she wants to go with me! <-- hummm - maybe not bc that might be interpreted as a marriage proposal. But - move on I will - first to other parts of Vietnam before going to another country. But I will return to Saigon before leaving for next country and will make it a point to say goodbye to my friends here before leaving. Doing so will be a sad experience. Great getting and we really enjoy your emails, stories, and pics! Must ask why you put such effort into your emails? To paraphrase something I said in an email to someone else - my emails/stories/pics enable me to document my travels at the expense of boring many! But I also have a desire to share with those that I care about - remember I am traveling alone which makes it kinda weird and even lonely at times. It's a cloudy and rainy day today. Good time for me to investigate/plan my egress from Saigon to other Vietnam locales. #26 - I have become addicted to these sweet-waffle-crepe-like goodies that a few street vendors prepare - they are also favorites of many Vietnamese who have no specific name or term for them but EVERYONE knows what they are <-- according to Linh and others. They are similar to very fresh but much thinner, unwrapped/rolled waffle ice cream cones. I get some daily from the same street vendor in this pic - she and I have become buds and aggressively argue EVERYday over price! In pic - that is her small wood-fire + cooking iron to the right and fresh-cooked products in plastic bags to the left. Entire set-up (including lit fire and hot grilling iron) can be simultaneously uplifted onto her shoulder and moved in seconds <-- which she must do several times a day bc shop keepers don't like here in front of their stores. And, yes that's me in background attempting to grab her products undetected! I never succeed. #27 pic title says it all - it was in here that I had my 1st VN fried spring roles (that is in VN - I eat many in US!) and where my favorite food stall and "other girlfriend" are located!






#28 I had to make a pilgrimage the previous crib of Thieu and Ky. For those that never knew or forgot, they were the last 2 Premiers of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) <-- a country that ceased to exist when Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army in 1975. #29 This REALLY is what the Saigon power grid and commo infrastrure looks like! Really - throughout Ho Chi Minh City!

Back to Cu Chi

This is going to be one of my longer "Dispatches" (<- a great book about VN war) - so bear with me and don't just look at the pictures (that includes you JEFF!) Feeling that I had already reached the apex of the shock/trauma associated with HCMC's culture, star/sickel flags/banners, food, and climate, I decided to venture back to Cu Chi. (Phonetically, that's "koo chee"). For those of you who don't know or have forgotten - Cu Chi is where I spent most of my 14-month (Sep '66 - Nov '67) assignment in Vietnam. I spent about half this time as a squad leader in the recon platoon of the 1st Bn/27th Inf (Wolfhounds), and the 2nd half as a Patrol Leader in the division's Long Range Reconnaisance Platoon (aka LRRP - affectionately refered to as "lerps") <- both part of the 25th Infantry Division aka "Tropic Lighting" because our division patch. It was and still is a banana leaf with a lightening bolt on it. Cu Chi was the division's base camp from late '65 to the end of the war. And yes - it is/was this division that was the theme of Oliver Stone's movie "Platoon" and more recently the comedy film "Tropic Thunder"... Get the connection! - lightening/thunder - I thought I would point that out because it took me a while to figure it out! Located about 72 kilometers (42 mi) from Saigon (near Cambodian boarder), Cu Chi today is a major tourist attraction/destination - not because of the 25th-division-based movies but due to the miles of tunnels that were constructed (some supposedly from Cambodia) by the Viet Cong and NVA (North Vietnamese Army) in the area, and were made famous by numerous "Tunnels of Cu Chi" themed books and documentaries. I was a tunnel rat for a very short period - it was in such a tunnel that I first got wounded and received a Purple Heart. Many half-day bus tours are run daily from just about every Saigon hotel. I decided I didn't want to return there with a bus load of tourist. Instead, I hired a motorbike and driver for a day (at US$20, much less than tour bus') to take me there and back - enabling me to stop and see what I wanted. Hoang - My Motorbike-Driver-For-Hire stationed himself near my hotel, had repeatedly offered to give me a motorbike tour of HCMC. For 4 days I rejected his offers, prefering to walk and feel/touch/smell/taste the city at a leisurely pace - even enjoying the many times I got lost. Each time I rejected his tour offers, we would engage in conversations where he demonstrated his intelligence and fairly good English skills. He came to mind as an appealing alternative to a "bus tour of Cu Chi" - so I presented the proposal, he accepted, we agreed on an all-day price (US$20!), scheduled a start time, and we were off in the AM yesterday, Sunday, Sep 7th.
I mistakingly thought that it being Sunday and the fact that 15+% of Vietnamese are Catholics combined with no school and most workers having the day off, traffic would be relatively light how WRONG I was - it was as bad as any weekday except people appeared to be more dressed up <- I suppose to go to church and weddings (of which I saw several during trip!. Evidence of My Return - after a bumpy 100 minute ride I DID "return" as another military guy once said.















I crossed many of these - really helped my foot ailments. That wassarcasm in case you didn't know...


Family hootch compounds and sampans were often seen during my tour - I always dreaded running into them bc, as often as not, it meant having to search them <-- not fun if it turns out they had something to hide ... such as booby-trap grenades.


Hoang said this was the Oriental River that eventually served as a border between Vietnam and Cambodia (at which point I crossed it many times for ops or operations in Cambodia). This appeared to be fare too close to Cu Chi to be the river I knew as the Oriental <-- but all such rivers look the same - hence the chill that I experienced running down my neck when Hoang said it was the Oriental! Our tour of the Cu Chi area didn't take very much time because I chose not to do the 2-3 hour Cu Chi Disneyland thing, So, Hoang and I stopped by a Cu Chi "roadside refreshment stop." There our 2 waitresses invited themselves to our table - btw - no tourist stop by this place because it's a few kilometers away from said Disneyland, and off the beaten track.

They were curious about me. They don't see many Americans - asked Hoang many questions about me which I freely and eagerly helped him answer. They were fascinated at the fact that I was a VN war vet that served in Cu Chi. I was fascinated at how old they were (or rather, not) I was getting a kind of deja vu of Chinese Olympic female gymnist!
They were both very intelligent (which was evident by the questions they asked), had great senses of humor and, as we got to know more about one another, they became very touchy-feely (the way Vietnamese are with close friends). And yes, Tan did kinda ask me to marry her - saying I was a funny, good natured, and generous man whom she would want/welcome as her husband... at least this is the way Hoang interpreted her words!

For almost 2 hours, we all talked, laughed, and gave high-5s and hugged one another. It was great fun and will be one of my fondest memories.