{"id":352,"date":"2010-02-22T09:31:58","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T09:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=352"},"modified":"2019-03-26T16:08:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T05:08:18","slug":"cruising-vietnam-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=352","title":{"rendered":"Cruising Vietnam. 2010 \ud83c\uddfb\ud83c\uddf3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Having departed Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam is our next port of call. &nbsp;Once known as Saigon, it was renamed after the war and subsequent unification. &nbsp;We were surprised to find no one had advised the people who lived there, as they all called it Saigon. &nbsp;The Diamond Princess docked at the port of Vung Tau early and we booked tickets for the shuttle bus to Saigon, about an hour and 30 minutes away. &nbsp;We had originally looked to catch the ferry from Vung Tau to Saigon which is much quicker but apparently very unreliable. &nbsp;So we chickened out and got a long dusty bus ride.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_301\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-301\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00944-e1403407645378.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-301 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00944-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Road side stall, Da Nang, Vietnam.  2010\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-301\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Road side stall, Vung Tau, Vietnam. 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p>As we approach Saigon the dry dusty villages disappear and the road starts to improve. &nbsp;Parks and gardens adjoin the road. &nbsp;The traffic rapidly increases and soon we are in the city surrounded by a sea of scooters and taxis. &nbsp;We are dropped off and left to our own devices. &nbsp;We manage a reasonable coffee at a Starbucks of all places.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_302\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-302\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00949-e1403412660272.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-302 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00949-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"The Reunification Palace, Saigon.  2010\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-302\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Reunification Palace, Saigon. 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We walk passed a cathedral, there are four weddings taking place in the grounds. &nbsp;One on each corner. &nbsp;During our wanderings we find the Reunification Palace, many statues of Hoe Chi Minh and walk the banks of the Mekong River. &nbsp;We lunch in a little Restuarant with free wifi. &nbsp;The food is really good and cheap, we clear a few emails as well.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_304\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-304\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00954-e1403424492208.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-304 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00954-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Saigon Streetscape,  Vietnam.  2010\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-304\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saigon Streetscape, Vietnam. 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After lunch we walk the markets. &nbsp;Lots of people, lots of stuff but mostly lots of smells. &nbsp;We have purchased a lacquer wall hanging and it&#8217;s time to find the bus and get back to the DP for a poolside beer.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_305\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-305\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00957-e1403425876627.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-305 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00957-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Another statue of Father Ho. Saigon, Vietnam.  2010\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-305\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another statue of Father Ho. Saigon, Vietnam. 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having departed Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam is our next port of call. &nbsp;Once known as Saigon, it was renamed after the war and subsequent unification. &nbsp;We were surprised to find no one had advised the people who lived there, as they all called it Saigon. &nbsp;The Diamond Princess docked at the port [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[67],"class_list":{"0":"post-352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vietnam","8":"tag-cruising","9":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23363,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions\/23363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}