"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #67 Phu My, Vietnam March 7, 2017 Tuesday Partly cloudy & 92 degrees Part #1 Of 2 57 Pictures

Today's port of call was Phu My, but mostly for the city of Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon), Vietnam. Basically, there is not much in Phu My, except a place for the ship to dock up the river. This is a working river and all of the docks along it are for cargo ships and freighters, or like us, occasional cruise ships. Also docked near us is one of the Celebrity ships.

The destination of some folks will be Ho Chi Minh, a city of over 9 million people. It is estimated that the drive to and from there is 2 hours, but we have known it to take closer to three hours to come back, due to too much traffic. Ho Chi Minh can be described as a frenetic French colonial city filled with cultural history that has recently evolved through Communism. We have found some places, such as the Reunification Hall (President's Palace) has displays of war history very difficult for most American tourists to handle. It all depends on the attitude of the local tour guide taking groups on excursions. Many years ago, on our very first visit to Saigon, we had the best young tour guide, who lectured all the way to the city. He told the history with an unbiased knowledge that explained where the country was before and after the war. Funny thing happened when we turned around to check the rest of the guests on the bus, we found they were sound asleep. On the other hand, when our tablemates took a shorter tour to Vung Tau a few years back, they had the opposite in the tour guide, who blamed those on the bus (assuming they were US citizens) for all the problems in Vietnam. They said it was the longest ride ever. Also said they would never go back on any tour here.

We think the better sights to see in Ho Chi Minh are Notre Dame Cathedral, Ben Thanh Market, the museum, and of course, any lunch buffet at local hotels. Most all tours will include a stop at a lacquer shop, which can be interesting if you see the process of the creations.

Other tours were trips to see the Cu Chi Tunnels, a Vietnamese cooking tour, and two shorter excursions. One went to a seaside resort of Vung Tau (been there), and Ba Ria Province to visit a typical home and mix with the locals. Lastly, there was a bus transfer, which Martha and Barb planned on doing. They always have a shopping and out to lunch day in the city. The prices ranged from $50 to $150 for 3 ½ to 8 ½ hours….more if there are traffic accidents.

So, what did we do today? Not much. We treated today as a sea day, mostly because we have taken the tours, some three times. No desire to get stuck in that PM traffic again, or put up with the passengers that insist on going on long tours despite the fact that they are sick with the current cold and deep cough going around. And then there are the dreaded bathroom stops, necessary, but take too much time, especially on 8 or 9 hour tours.

The good thing is that our room is facing the river traffic….something to watch while we were catching up on computer work. Also nice to have the Kindle Fire working again. Games can be so entertaining and relaxing.

Forgot to mention a couple of things. Last night we got a note from King Neptune stating that since the Amsterdam is going to be too far north of the Equator, he is unable to do his normal pollywog to shellback ceremony. Forget the fact that this had been on our itinerary since day one, and would have been nice for those who have never seen one before. It's only 90 miles or so, north of the line, and if it was always planned, that is too bad.

The other thing was that when we turned our lights out last night before going to sleep after midnight, we noticed that the ship was surrounded with small fishing boats from shore. It was like seeing lights of cars on a freeway. So strange, but a way of making a living here. The fish must be easier to catch or net at night with the boat lights on the waters.

At noontime, we took a walk on the pier and to the gates. Realizing that this is a different dockage than last year, it was pretty much the same thing. Taxi drivers were waiting to offer a ride to the nearby village. However, after talking to some walking buddies, Mike and Barb, from the lower promenade deck, they said the village was a 20 minute drive one day, or about 20 miles inland. They negotiated a $50 ride for four hours, and saw a village where time stood still. They saw much of the same type of markets we saw yesterday in Nha Trang, but they also had a chance to get haircuts for cheap, we assume. They did look nice though. It was their first time here, so they felt $50 was a good deal. Yes, it was compared to the ship's tours.

Knowing we would not be getting off of the ship again, we deposited the Vietnam landing cards we had been carrying for the last couple of days in the box on the official's desk on deck A.

As we mentioned earlier, the Amsterdam was not the only ship in town, as we could see the Celebrity Constellation in our other spot in the river. Built in 2002, that ship is 90,228 gross tons with a passenger capacity of 2450. Several years ago, we sailed on her sister ship, the Infinity, and discovered that it was a very nice vessel.

We spent the afternoon visiting with friends and finally going to the sail away on the aft deck. It was nowhere near 92 degrees today, because the river winds picked up, and cooled the decks off. Spicy chicken skewers were served while we chatted from the sail away at 6pm until it got dark. The sunset was pretty neat tonight, seeing it from the river instead of the open ocean. As we left the river later on, we could see the lights of the night time fishermen once again.

All of us were present at dinner tonight. Martha was hit hard by the cold bug, but had returned to the table last night. Martin was re-covering from his all day tour in Ho Chi Minh, and the rest of us compared our day while spent onboard the ship.

On stage this evening was David Kidd, with the voice and songs of Tom Jones. From his photo, he almost resembles the singer, and he still sounds much like him, as we also saw and heard him the last time he was on the ship.

The clocks went ahead one hour this evening, something none of us like to do. Singapore is on their own time, which is not where we are now. In a few days, we will that hour back, and more.

One day at sea, and we shall be in Singapore, one of the absolute best places in the world, in our humble opinion.

Bill & Mary Ann

PS In answer to a few questions, there are separate gifts we describe. Those passengers that are full world cruisers will receive each gift that arrives at no specific time for the whole trip, while those who do segments will get the gift handed out during that segment. Other gifts we talk about are for the President's Club members. They are given every two weeks and can include alcohol, beer, wine, sodas, or water. In place of the liquid varieties, you can get a bouquet of flowers.

NordicPrince – it is a done deal.

One very large tug boat