Saigon, November 2006

 


The main mode of transportation in Saigon was motorcycles. The streets were a sea of people whizzing by on bikes, sometimes whole families of 4 or 5 would ride together on one bike!
We visited a lacquer factory and learned about the three kinds of lacquer ware produced in Vietnam: painted, mother of pearl and duck egg shell.
This man is working on a duck egg shell picture. He is gluing the egg shells on with a special adhesive and then they will cover the picture with layers of lacquer until it is smooth.
Here are some photos of Saigon at night from the roof of our hotel.

Another picture at night. Someday I will invest in a tripod so I can take better night pictures.
One last picture at night.
This is the courtyard in the history museum.
We had to tour this place pretty quickly but Long insisted that e take a picture of the buddha with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes. It is supposed to remind you that the buddha is always watching out for you and always helping you.

At the museum we saw a water puppet show. This is the stage and pool before the performance.
Water puppet performances have been going on since the 11th century. Here are two dragon puppets.
Another picture of the dragon puppets.
The tail of a phoenix puppet as it is under water.

The phoenix puppet.
Small duck puppets all strung together.
People trying to catch the ducks.
A small cat puppet gets away with one of the ducks.

The cat up a pole with a duck.
Swimming fish puppets. The puppets are attached to long bamboo poles.
The puppeteers are behind the green screen in the back and they move the poles around to manipulate the puppets. Here are some people in a boat.
A water dragon scaring the people puppets.

The water puppeteers come to take a bow.
This isn't a very good picture because we were in the van, but there is a man ahead of us on a motorcycle hauling a small fridge.
Motorcyclists waiting at a traffic light. I kept trying to get a picture to show just how many motocycles were on the streets, but these really don't tell you how many there were. It was really amazing.
More motorcycle traffic, we saw hardly any cars or trucks in Vietnam. We also saw very few accidents, which was amazing considering how many bikes were on the street.

Lisa, Erin and I have a drink at the Rex, the hotel where most journalists stayed during the war.