Vietnam or Nam

I wasn't sure what to expect from Vietnam. We sailed 75 miles up the Saigon river and ported in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. The official name is Ho Chi Minh City, but it seems everyone refers to it as Saigon. I was initially amazed that our ship could make it up the river. The river is not very wide and the small fishing boats and debris are everywhere. Our ship was sounding the horn about every 10 seconds, and the locals were racing to get out of our way. We came around a corner once and a large vessel was on a collission course with us. Both boats turned as quickly as possible and I watched as we missed each other by about 20 feet. We did manage to safely arrive in port and were anxious to get off the ship. When we made landfall we took a shuttle bus to the town square. From there we walked to a huge marketplace called Benh Thanh. We spent about two hours shopping there. I managed to find a good deal on some Tiger Beer. I bought a six pack for 2 dollars. As we shopped around I realized that Vietnam is very inexpensive. We ended the first day by going to a travel agency and booking a two night stay in a beach hotel resort in the town of Mu Ne. On day two in Vietnam we walked around town some more, played in a local park, and watched a water puppet show. A water puppet show involves puppets in water, music, and lots of lights. After the puppet show we had a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant and the bill for all four of us was under 20 dollars. After dinner we walked back to the ship and started packing for our beach trip. Our two night beach trip started with a 5 hour bus ride. The speed limits in Vietnam on highways are about 30mph, so while we felt safe, it took a long time to go a short distance. Another thing about traffic in Vietnam is that 90% of all traffic is motorcycles. They are really good at avoiding each other and flowing as one along the streets. I did manage to see a new motorcycle passenger record of 5 in Vietnam. Upon arrival at our hotel we unpacked and found the resort to be very nice. There was a large pool right next to the South China Sea. We spent many hours over the next two days in the pool and swimming in the Sea. The resort had a good selection of food and beverages and of course everything was very inexpensive. A large Saigon beer was under 1 dollar. The family had a good time at the resort and we did little except swim and eat. One big bonus for William and I was TV in our room. We had about 50 channels to choose from and enjoyed watching soccer and cartoons. We left the resort and had a 6 hour bus ride back to the ship. Upon our return we unpacked and got ready for the next leg of our trip. Observations of Vietnam: * Vietnam is the cheapest country we've visited. * The Vietnam people are very friendly to Americans. * Tropical heat and humidity. A real sweat maker of a country. * Saigon has 7 million people and probably about 10 traffic lights. * The electrical wiring in Saigon is incredible. There are birdnests of wires on the poles like no other I've ever seen. (See picture) * The Russians love to vacation in Vietnam. At our hotel there was mostly Russians and Vodka.