Saigon

This morning's wake-up call came at 5 a.m., but we were already awake. Our suitcases had to be out by 5:15 and we had to get to breakfast by 5:30 for a 6 a.m. departure to Dalat airport. This airport makes the Waterloo, Iowa airport look like O'Hare, so it didn't take long to get through security.

The flight from Dalat to Tan Son Nhut Airport is short -- just a little over a half hour in the air. But we are told that the trip by bus would take nearly 12 hours. Of course, since the bus only move 30 mph on terrible roads, that extends the trip.

A 30 mph bus trip would have been speedy, though, coming into Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) from the airport. Traffic in the city center was a swarm of motorbikes when we were here three years ago. Now there are more cars and trucks to add to the congestion. Gridlock is common in this city of 10 million people and nearly as many vehicles.

Notre Dame interior

Eventually we reached the area of Notre Dame Cathedral and the Central Post Office -- two classic buildings left by the French. Nearby, one can still see the old CIA building, famous as the final point of evacuation for Americans in 1975 as Saigon fell. Surprisingly, our guide pointed out very little about these sites. He merely dropped us here for half an hour.

Central Post Office

We were also dropped for an hour at the War Remnants Museum (formerly known as the Museum of the War of Criminal American Aggression). We had also visited this place three years ago, but didn't mind seeing it again. The third floor exhibit on the work of war correspondents and photojournalists is especially impressive.

War Remnants Museum

Next stop was lunch, at the very same Pho restaurant OAT brought us to three years ago. The place was still as crowded and the soup equally good. Just a half a block down the street is a "lacquerware" factory. It seems that each country has a very different technique and product claiming that name. The Vietnamese version involves a wood base and the use of materials such as mother of pearl and egg shell.

Lacquerware

The bus took us just a few blocks out of the way, to the Saigon River and back, and in HCM City traffic, that killed enough time so that we could check into the hotel when we arrived. This is not the same hotel we had in 2014, but we did pass that one on the way. The location of the hotel we are in now is significantly better.

City Hall

After some down time, our guide offered an optional neighborhood orientation walk. It quickly turned into a walk in the rain. Afternoon showers are common here. Our neighborhood includes the Opera House and City Hall (both French colonial structures), as well as the Hotel Rex -- meeting place of journalists, military officers, and spies during the war.

Opera

Dinner was at a place called KOTO (know one teach one), a non-profit restaurant dedicated to training disadvantaged youth in various trades -- in this case, of course, food service trades. The food was very good.

It's Friday night in Saigon, a week before Tet, the lunar new year! The city is alive, and everyone is on the move to get home from work or to get to the office party. Traffic was at an absolute standstill. Our bus could not get to the restaurant to pick us up -- so we walked. It wasn't that far, and it felt good to us. We passed a lot of interesting, bustling places. But after such an early morning, we walked on by and called it a night.