Asian Temples

I can tell by the reactions of the people around me that I have an unfounded excitement for temples. I love them with their intense colors and their gods with animal and human faces. I get an excited feeling when I smell incenses left burning in urns by worshipers as gifts to their gods. I love the way the burning incenses fill the space with a magical haze and an exotic smell. Then on top of that one hears the beautiful sounds of the bells and chanting. All this makes for me a magic that seems to transcend time.

After extensive research, here is a my small overview of all the Temples I visited.

                                                  

Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon

City Hall in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City formally Saigon which many people still call it. Is a very beautiful city. It has a lot of French influence with their wonderful Asian culture. 

Students Drawing in Ho Chi Minh City

I talked to many people here.  Some were coming back after escaping on the last boats out of Vietnam. Some who had traveled to Saigon before the Vietnam War, others who had fought in the war. All were impressed with the people’s resilience and fortitude. The city they said had changed so much in the last ten years with many new buildings and clean well-kept gardens and parks. The people they said have a new found hope for a positive future. I could see the pride and feel the contentment.

 Ho Chi Minh City

 Ho Chi Minh City Market

Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon

Wiring in Ho Chi Minh City 

Wiring in Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City Market

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 Ho Chi Minh City 

 It was nice to see a place recovering so beautifully that has been stuck in my mind as a war torn place. I found the people so kind and gracious. I had a lot of fun bargaining in the market and walking through their parks watching kids dancing and the elderly people on exercise equipment.

 I would highly recommend seeing this city. But do take a lot of cabs they are cheap and a lot safer than walking. They still need to work the traffic problem out. (See my blog on the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City)

Ho Chin Minh City's Traffic

Ho Chin Minh City's Traffic

In Ho Chin Minh most of the kids didn't wear helmets.

I have told many of my friends that I thought India had the craziest traffic in the world. Marrakesh was pretty bad, BUT now I have to eat my words. My new vote is for Ho Chi Minh City. 

Ho Chin Minh City's Traffic

The city is full of mopeds, thousands of them, and they perform a dance with no practice.
It is the same kind of dance which our motor cycle police practice for many hours and days to perfect for our parades. They whirl around traffic circles in a well-coordinated dance that weaves through each other, it’s really quite amazing and fun to watch. The only problem comes when someone who hasn’t perfected the dance enters the circle which I have to say happens quite often. This then causes momentary chaos. These intruders are sometimes tourists trying to cross their very large streets with five to ten unlined moped lanes. Or a lone untrained moped rider.

Ho Chin Minh City's traffic

My husband and I decided to cross one of these large circles to reach the market that was exactly across the circle. This was a daredevil experience. There are crosswalks but they have no meaning. You feel your hands moving as if you are waiting to leap into a twirling jump rope. Then you’re off walking, running, or skipping through the moving traffic always looking both ways because you never know as they just come out of nowhere. Sometimes you get stuck on a tiny strip of pavement which truthfully adds no true form of protection. Your heart is pumping as this is no joke because you could die. No one stops for you and  if you’re lucky they will go around you if you don’t mess up there dance too much. I found an English woman trembling on one of these strips she asked me if I could help her get across. So I took her arm and said ok now. I pulled her with me  as I was praying she wouldn't freeze up. We made it to the other side of the street where she thanked me profusely. 

Whole families would ride together. Note the little boy on the back moped with his family is reading a book.

Sometimes when you get to the other side and are standing on the sidewalk composing your nerves a moped whizzes by on the sidewalk--and this is not a joke. When we returned to the boat after one of these harrowing experiences one of our friends told us he had just seen a young woman die. She was hit by a moped and they covered her with a sheet.

 

Ho Chin Minh City's traffic is worse at night partly because it's harder to see.

Ho Chin Minh City's traffic at night

Looking to give someone a ride I'd like to see the brave tourist who would do that. 

Tea in HoChin Minh City formally Saigon, Vietnam

Today I ducked into a coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City formally known as Saigon. I am escaping the exhausting midday heat it was 103F. 

I have a cup of sweet jasmine tea sitting in front of me.  Its scent is filling the air around me.  I'm watching a man through the window of this small quaint cafe. 

He is sitting on his moped which he has driven up on the sidewalk as if he is at a fast food drive in window. He is buying a basket from a lady in a traditional Vietnamese cone shaped hat. She has so many baskets tied onto her bicycle that you can barely make it out. He is examining each basket very carefully. 

The traffic behind them is whizzing by. It’s full of taxis and even more mopeds. Its fun watching the mopeds go by because people are dressed in their everyday clothes:  everything from short dresses and heels to construction workers carrying ladders. This is a true human parade, which gives me a tiny look into their lives.

                                                These are the simple moments I travel for.