Good Morning Viet Nam!

Actually, that was yesterday.  Today we are at sea,  the South China Sea to be exact.   This is my last day on the water, for tomorrow we sail into the port, Hong Kong, that I won't sail out of.   I got that line from my friend Ron, the French Canadian from table number one.  It was inevitable that I would use the good morning Viet Nam line.    I can't believe how the time has flown by,  I'm really having a hard time thinking that the Mary will leave Hong Kong without me.  Downright upset!    But there's still time left to enjoy on board.   Tonight, I'm invited to a cocktail party given by the Senior Officers--the result of switching to one of their tables, then a formal dinner, and the Oriental Ball, in the Queens Room.   Eleven hundred people are getting off in Hong Kong, no doubt there will be lots photos and email exchanges, and yes, tearful goodbyes.   Bonds really do form.   We dock at noon tomorrow and the ship makes a rare overnight stay, so I get one final night onboard.  Glad for that!   I'm going back to the first table for dinner, to say farewells to everyone.   I've met up with the couple from Liverpool, and told them I'd had a chance to join an officer's table, and who wouldn't jump at that!   Went over well, thank goodness.    We'll have a fun dinner Friday night.    I miss the waiters, and everyone else.   All too soon I'll be missing!      Back to Viet Nam,   I LOVED Saigon.   What a great day we had!   I would return there in a heart beat.    At dawn yesterday we entered the Mekong Delta and proceeded slowly up the winding river itself.   It was quite a sight.  We docked at yet another container port (definite drawback of this ship--her size dictates that), and then a two hour ride midst thousands of scooters into Saigon.    Straight to the Rex  Hotel for lunch.   The Rex is a beautiful old hotel from the French colonial era.   Lunch was fantastic, all in courses, lovely presentation.  All smiles, people were very friendly, wanted to shake hands, talk--not just at the hotel but everywhere we went.   Certainly old animosities seem left behind.   Central Saigon was laid out by the French, there are wide boulevards and tree lined streets, plazas and a giant roundabout that my cousin Michele called the traffic gorilla.  My uncle was stationed there with Esso in the late 50's and early 60's, he and my aunt and my cousins lived  at 218b rue Pasteur. After lunch I hopped a taxi while the others shopped and went to see their old house.  It was great fun, found it no problem--Pasteur is one of the few streets to retain it's French name.   Took some photos and thought of the life that they lived here back then, hustled back to rejoin the group.   We stopped at the Post Office, which is a beautiful colonial building next to the red brick cathedral.  There are flower gardens all over the place, the city was extravagantly decorated for the upcoming New Year, which the Vietnamese call Tet--does that ring a bell?    The Tet Offensive was the defining moment of America's involvement in the Viet Nam war--ask Google.    I really loved the feel of Saigon, missing all the sort of glitzed-up malls, super highways, chain stores etc. that are all over the rest of Asia, yet having up and coming, well maintained, clean, vibrant look to it.  It's also not expensive.   Enjoy the photos!