A sampan ride on the tam coc

And great experience on the river travelling on a sampan through the rice fields.  The local farmers get one sampan.  They take turns taking out the tourists.  They get about five opportunities a month to do one trip for a six dollar tip.  The ride is a total of six km.

We went through a series of three caves.  Tam Coc means three caves.

You would think we were the ones paddling the sampans....

The Mekong Delta

Our last official touring day.  Tomorrow the arduous task of packing for the long flight home.  Our day started at 0800 for our 90 minute ride to the Mekong river.


First a stop at the best pagoda I have ever seen in terms of the stunning giant Buddha.

I think I now understand .  A pagoda is a religious site with monks and nuns actually living there.  Temples are places to go and ask for good luck and pray for personal issues.   I think there is still more to it......I'll have to do some homework when I get home.

We then boarded our boat for a ride to the islands in the Mekong delta.

We stopped at an island with fruit orchards and we're able to try the local fruit.  But first we played dress up.

Some sampling of fruit and tea.

Dragon fruit, banana, pineapple, .... Oh gosh I need to ask the students, I forget the others.

Local entertainment while we sampled with singing and an explanation of the instruments.

We used the smaller sampan to get further in land.

That is it for today.

Day Touring Saigon

Our day of city touring started with the Reunification Palace which was home to many events, one being the signing of Vietnam over to the communist.

We continue to see some of the beautiful French architecture.

...our Catholics in front of Saigon's Notre Dame

 The post office

One more temple...or was it a pagoda.  Our guide has explained it ten times and I'm still confused.

A powerful 90 minutes at the War Remnants Museum

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The museum was a photo gallery of images of the war, many we remember from Life magazine.

 Horrific images of the devastation Agent Orange had on the environment and the people still today.

The day isn't over.  We head to a Chinese wholesale market.   Businesses in Vietnam (vendors) will buy their bulk supplies from this market....it was mind boggling.

One more temple........

......and one more place to spend our money with some learning thrown in at a laquerware factory and showroom.

........and once again we did stimulate the economy.

Saigon

An early flight from Hanoi to Saigon.

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Our first stop. In Saigon was the Cu Chi
tunnels of the Viet Cong
History lesson first in one of the bunkers
.

Our turn in the tunnels.

I bet no one is doing this at home, especially on Mothers Day.

You will learn how to calculate net airfares......or else......(Sue)

The chance for some of us to be tunnel rats.

 Happy Birthday Braetanna.  A river cruise and a cake!