Beach BBQ Ko Kood, Thailand

Ko Kood, Saturday, February 11, 2012 – After one day in Cambodia we sailed to Ko Kood, Thailand. This is a private island owned by a member of the Thai royal family. The ship anchored here this morning so we could have a beach party on a fabulous magical secluded white sandy beach with crystal clear water, swaying palm trees and jungle forest as a backdrop. The ship sets up lounge chairs, umbrellas, individual lunch tables with white linen table cloths, a bar, a buffet area, water sports, and music. We are ferried over to the beach in  the ship’s tenders. Margie and I went kayaking and then enjoyed being in the warm tropical water. They serve caviar and champagne in the water to the bathers before lunch. As usual the food was fabulous with chicken, fish, ribs, steak, hamburgers, hot dogs, salads, breads, desserts, etc. By this time we are now being more discriminating about our eating. Yes we are working out in the exercise room when at sea. This was a terrific day in the warm water and sun on a lovely topical isle in Thailand.

Entering the Mekong River toward Saigon

Tuesday, Feb 7 – Early morning on the Mekong River. The Mekong River flows from China through Laos, Cambodia and Viet Nam into a broad delta before entering the sea. Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon is about 4 hours up the river from the sea. The Seabourn Pride is small enough to navigate all the way up to the inner city. Larger cruise ships need to dock in the industrial harbor. The river is a very busy place with lots of fishing boats, container ships, small cargo river boats, dredging barges, hydrofoil ferries, and house boats. The ship had to constantly be blowing its horn announcing its presence with the river boats not obeying any particular rules of the road. Eventually the ship comes to the city which has a very modern skyline with one building over 60 stories high.  Of course, we think of the Viet Nam War and what life must have been like on the Mekong River with gun boats and in Saigon itself.  It is now an emerging city of 8 million people with a rapidly growing industrial base. 

Water puppets

Tuesday, February 8 – Water puppets. We took a tour of the sights of Saigon which included a stop at the local history museum where we had a demonstration of the art of water puppets. The puppeteers sit in the water behind a screen and manipulate the puppets in front by wooden sticks under water attached to the puppets. The action is kind of crude and dramatic. The stories are traditional dragon stories or other folk stories in Viet Namese so we could not understand them.

Other highlights of the tour included the oldest Chinese temple in Saigon, Reunification Hall, the French built Roman Catholic cathedral, the post office designed by Eiffel, and the US embassy where the Americans left Saigon. Our tour guide was a young South Viet Namese man who knew the history of the War very well and clearly was not a Communist sympathizer. He portrayed the events leading up to the surrender of South Viet Nam to North Viet Nam in terms of it being an unwinnable war. The Communist government tried to eliminate all cultural, societal and business aspects of the capitalists South but subsequently have become more liberal when they saw that their efforts were not working economically. Viet Nam is politically a single party socialist state that now has a capitalist economy.  The Reunification Hall is where the South Viet Nam government operated during the War but is now a museum celebrating the reunification of Viet Nam into one country. It is architecturally very lovely with a somewhat modern open architecture. Outside are the two communist tanks that broke through the gates to seize the building and end the war.

Pedicab dwntwn saigon

Tuesday, February 7 - Pedicab. The entire tour group took the three wheel bike pedicabs from the historical museum to a lacquer factory. Saigon traffic is chaos. There are 4 million motor bikes or scooters in Saigon, one for every two people. There are very few cars and very poor public transportation. There are a few traffic lights but basically traffic is a free for all with everyone moving and avoiding colliding with anyone else.  Trying to walk across a major thorough fare is literally taking your life in your hands. You have to start off the curve, keep a steady predictable pace and let the motor bikes flow around you. We had gone to the main downtown market in the morning and someone had to show us how it was done. The pedicab ride was a little safer but still very scary.

 

View me's pedicab

I took this shot as my pedicab driver pulled out of line and like the motor bikes pulled into the oncoming lane to pass the other pedicabs in our group.  needless to say this was all a little hair raising but lots of fun nonetheless

Saigon center

Notre Dame Cathedral was built by the French and is one of the few French building still in existence. The French occupied Indochina until 1954 when they were defeated by the Viet Namese.  The history of this region is one of constant conflict between the various  indigenous cultures and with foreign occupational forces.  Not very many periods of peace and prosperity but we currently seem to be in one.

Mekong river resort

Wed, February 8 – We were in Saigon for two days. The second day, we took and all day tour to the Mekong Delta. We drove out of Saigon and into the country side which consists of rice paddies and vegetable gardens. They still farm rice with water buffalo and a lot of human effort.

We toured a part of the delta by boat and saw a floating market with boats loaded with fruits, vegetables and fish. The costumers arrive by boat and go from boat to boat to get what they want. Many people live on their boats or in houses along the river on stilts. Lots of fishing boats actively dragging their nets and people wading in the shallows gathering shell fish. We had a wonderful formal Viet Namese lunch at a brand new eco resort on the river with a whole fried fish, spring rolls, salads, rice, etc. We also got to see how rice wine is distilled, rice pan cakes for spring rolls are prepared, and coconut candy is made. A very different life style for sure.