Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City

The visit at Mr Pham Phu's house was nice. I had tried to get flowers, but it was impossible to find any.. Except a few souvenir shops, everything was closed. I ran around for about 30 minutes trying to find flowers or something else which would be appropriate to offer, but I could not find anything. I therefore arrived at his house late and with empty hands. He did not seem to worry about ot. We chatted about his job and my job, about Europe in general and about his family. He also wanted me to check some of the translations he had done from Vietnamese into French (most;y birth and marriage certificates..), just by using a dictionary (he never learner French). I was quite surprised about the good quality. If you ever read the instructions of some cheap imported product from China, you know what I mean.. ;-) It made sense and there were only some minor mistakes. I jost got to see his wife for 10 seconds and quickly dais hello. I was not even officially inbtroduced. She was in the house, but it seems that she was not allowed to join (or did not want to..) I got a gup of tea, a glass of Australian Port Wine(not sure whether they are still allowed to call ot like that .. ;-)), Banh something (I unfortunately forgot the name.. but it is a roll made with sticky rice and green bean and then cut into slices that you dip in soja sauce..: delicicous..) and a beer with it.. hospitality was first class !!!

In the late afternoon, I went to the airport back to Da Nang and had an evening flight to Ho Chi Minh City (most Vietnamese, especially in the South) actually call it still Sai Gon (and the airport abbreviation is also SGN...)

I was picked up at the aiport by Madame Cuc's guesthouse. The city was by far not as busy as everybody had told me.. because of the Tet holidays... I got a warm welcome in this family run guesthouse run only by the female part of the family... this was just another proof that here women actually work much more than men. I saw a lot of men sitting in front of the houses and drinking or playing cards, while the women were working. I also saw lots of old women woth a "bent" back from hard work, whereas I did not see a single man having this problem...

The next day, I explored the city by foot. I went to see the War Remnant Museum, telling the story of the "American War" as they understandably called it here from the Vietnamese perspective. There certainly is a bit of propaganda that goes with it, but it struck me quite a lot. It was mainly photos taken by journalists (from both sides) showing the terror of war and the horrible war crimes committed by the Americans, especially the consequences of the use of chemical weapons but also other atrocities.

I liked the city even if a lot of people I had met on my trip told me that it was horrible. It was perhaps becuase of the festive atmosphere of the Tet festival: the whole centre was decorated with flowers and sculptures and in the evenings everybody took his or her scooter and went out. It was a street party every night !!!

Today I also walked around a bit, ate for the 5th time a "pho" which is one of the vietnamese national dishes: a noodle soup with varying ingredients. I loved the spicy one.. They have several chains of "pho restaurants", I tried "Pho 24" and "Pho 2000". The last one had been honoured by the presence of US-president Clinton several years ago (I mean Bill Clinton... you never know.. if Hillary will be elected this could lead to confusion for posteriority.. my blog is intended for eternity... ;-) ) There were several photos of the event displayed in the resraurant.

Today in the afternoon, I went to the airport as my trip is about to end.. how sad !!!I was very lucky that the nice lady of Malaysia Airlines was not that strict with the weight of my luggage (which had 22,5 kilos) and that she did not weigh my backpack and the extra bag I had bought in order to put all the stuff I had bought along the way (on all these beautiful markets and in these great shops.. you remeber ??) .. I think the hand luggage has another 15 kilos ore so (whereas a maximum of 7 is allowed..).

Now I am at Kuala Lumpur airport waiting for my flight back to Paris... I will arrive in the early Sunday morning and will be back to Brussels by train at around 8 am. And on Monday: back to work.. I hope I will be able to sleep a bit on the plane..