Tolin's 2024 World Cruise blog posts, Day 60 Mar 9, 2024, Saigon, Viet Nam, Ho Chi Minh City by Night

-

We will ride into Saigon this evening for a three-course Vietnamese dinner, attend a Vietnamese water puppet show, and observe the night life and lights.

 

Highrise buildings (mostly apartments) from our cruise ship, 20+ miles away.

When this bridge is completed in several years, our cruise ship could be able to continue up river to Saigon City.

An American community on the Saigon outskirts




Snorkel truck pouring concrete

Shopping Mall

Saturday mid-afternoon cruising.  Today's tour guide said there are about 8 million scooter in Saigon for the 11+ million residents.











First course of our dinner:  Beef, fried pumpkin flower stuffed with prawn mince & herbs, chicken/mushroom soup.

Second course:  Grilled honey chicken, braised pork belly, beef

Third course:  Coconut che, fruit salad, flan cake, chocolate kumquat truffle


Water Puppet Show

Puppet shows videos are available:

3 min:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ajfQpN-ZXI

48 min:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzyK0uOkE0k


Water puppetry is a Vietnamese tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century, when it originated in the villages of the Red River Delta, in the north of the country. Vietnamese water puppetry is a variation on the ancient Asian puppet tradition.

The puppets are made out of wood and then lacquered. The shows are performed in a waist-deep pool. A large bamboo rod supports the puppet under the water and is used by the puppeteers, who are normally hidden behind a screen, to control them. Thus the puppets appear to be moving over the water. When rice fields would flood, the villagers would entertain each other using this form of puppet play.


Fascinating Performance details:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_puppetry





















Puppeteers


We planned to go on an 11-hour Mekong Delta excursion the next day.  However, it was 10 PM arriving back at the ship, 11 PM to bed.  The next morning we would have had to wake up at 5 AM to board a bus to take us to the river boat.  So we decided to pass.

Today was a laundry and rest day; tomorrow there will be morning excursions.  We will move away from the dock at 2 PM for a day and a half journey to our next port call, which will be Nathon (Koh Samui) Thailand.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 6 - Meteora, Greece

-
Image
  The  Meteora ,   pronounced   [meˈteora]  is a   rock formation   in the regional unit of   Trikala , in   Thessaly ,   Greece , hosting one of the largest and most precipitously built complexes of   Eastern Orthodox   monasteries , second in importance only to   Mount Athos .   The six (of an original twenty-four) monasteries are built on immense natural pillars and hill-like rounded boulders that dominate the local area. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, the twenty-four monasteries were established atop the rocks.   Meteora is located near the town of   Kalabaka   at the northwestern edge of the   Plain of Thessaly   near the   Pineios   river and   Pindus Mountains . Meteora was added to the  UNESCO   World Heritage List  in 1988 because of the outstanding architecture and beauty of the complex, in addition to its religious and artistic significance. The n...
Read more

Tolin's 2024 World Cruise blog posts, Day 39 Feb 17, 2024, Sydney, AU, Sydney Panorama

-
Image
  Sydney  is the capital city of the  state  of  New South Wales , and the most populous city in  Australia . Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds  Sydney Harbor  and extends about 50 miles from the  Pacific Ocean  in the east to the  Blue Mountains  in the west, and about 50 miles from the  Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park  and the  Hawkesbury River  in the north and north-west, to the  Royal National Park  and  Macarthur  in the south and south-west. Greater Sydney consists of 658 suburbs, spread across 33 local government areas. Residents of the city are colloquially known as "Sydneysiders." The estimated population in June 2022 was 5,297,089; the city is home to approximately 66% of the  state's  population. The city's nicknames include the "Emerald City" and the "Harbor City." Aboriginal Australians  have inhabited the Greater ...
Read more

Tolin's 2024 World Cruise blog posts, Day 75 Mar 24, 2024,Colono, Shri Lanka, Colombo City by Tuk-Tuk

-
Image
We docked overnight at Colombo Sri Lanka ,  historically known as  Ceylon  and officially the  Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka , is an  island country  in  South Asia . It lies in the  Indian Ocean , southwest of the  Bay of Bengal , separated from the  Indian peninsula  by the  Gulf of Mannar  and the  Palk Strait . It shares a  maritime border  with the  Maldives  in the southwest and  India  in the northwest. Sri Lanka has a population of approximately 22 million and is home to many cultures, languages and ethnicities. The  Sinhalese  people form the majority of the population, followed by the  Sri Lankan Tamils , who are the largest minority group and are concentrated in northern Sri Lanka; both groups have played an influential role in the island's history. Other long-established groups include the  Moors ,  Indian Tamils ,  Burghers ,  M...
Read more