Feb 23rd is missing for two reasons. It was a travel day through massive crowds at the airport, and I developed a severe case of Fountain Nose. Sniffle sniffle sneeze honk. I had to pass on the Vespa Tour which sounded like fun but not the way I was feeling. Alice stayed with me. Those who went said it was great. While they were out Alice got some meds and today I am much better.
The old Post Office is an imposing building. It still runs as a P.O.
But the foreign call booths are no longer needed. Our guide said his mother would come down here and wait forever for an operator to route a foreign call. Her name would be called with a booth number and miraculously her party would be on the phone.
We also visited the Museum of War Remnants, formerly the Museum of American War Crimes, name changed to encourage Americans to visit. Inside it’s all about American aggression and war crimes and the heroic resistance to them. I did not learn anything I didn’t already know.
But on to today. We drove to the Mekong Delta about 1 3/4 hours. Traffic again was horrendous.
Motorbikes seemed to have it faster, but more danger I’m guessing. This was a family of 3. Our guide said when his kids were small, all four in the family rode at once, and he has seen five.
We got on a tourist boat. Hard seats. We all got coconut water/milk.
For once the skies were beautiful. Our first major stop was for tea. We were served black tea with honey and kumquat juice. Very nice. Then the girls tried to sell us honey, royal jelly, bee pollen, ginger and dried bananas. I wonder how much of it the USDA would allow.
We had a stop for fruit. Clockwise from the upper right: longan (peel it with your fingernails), pineapple, pomelo, dragon fruit (red variety), watermelon, rambutan (twist it like a chicken neck and it pops open).
We were serenaded by a lovely girl, some kind of guitar, and an un-named string instrument. Incomprehensible.
Me not comprehending.
Then it was off for a sampan ride and wouldn’t you know, traffic jam at the debarkation point. The whole country is in a traffic jam.
Finally it was time for lunch. This is an elephant-ear fish deep fried with chopped nuts on the side. The girl put on gloves and ripped the flesh away and wrapped it in rice noodle paper. We had four kinds of sauce for this and what came next (7/10).
After spring rolls (10/10) the giant prawns appeared again, this time arranged in a coconut shell. Again, not much taste except for the sauces 6/10).
The last item was soup. No photo. (9/10)
Our boat returned for us and we spent 2 1/2 hours riding back to Saigon. I have to say, the heat, distances and traffic are less than helpful. Eating a large meal at 96 degrees is a tough job.
We decided to have a light dinner with bar food on the 20th floor bar. An olive variety had one kind and they were warm. The smoked duck sliders were open faced on a baguette slice. The crispy pork belly was a hit (9/10). The non-stop crappy music got to me – and it was obviously American. If you knew three chords you would have been overqualified to play it.
The view from the roof was cool.
Port Out, Starboard Home 