Vietnam

From Singapore we sailed north to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  Ho Chi Minh City used to be named Saigon, and many people still call it that.  It was renamed at the end of the Vietnam War when the communist forces took over South Vietnam and their leader, Ho Chi Minh, named the city after himself.  We had to travel up the Saigon River, which is a major river in Vietnam.  It was not as big as the Amazon, the last river we went up in the MV Explorer, so we were much closer to other boats and had to be very careful not to run into anything.  Most people in America associate Vietnam with the Vietnam War, which America fought to try and keep the communists in North Vietnam from taking over the rest of the country.  The war became very unpopular and is still a very important even in American history.  I expected Vietnamese people to still talk about the war as well since it was a big part of their history too, but no one in Vietnam seemed to dislike Americans because of it, and it was not treated as such a big deal.  However, because the communists ultimately won the war and took over the country, Vietnam is still an officially communist country.  Even though they have a very different system of government from the US, their lifestyles are not as different as I expected.  There are lots of private shops and businesses, and the people do not agree with all the communist ideas of their government.  One difference between the US and Vietnam is that is Vietnam not many people drive cars, and most people drive scooters instead.  Everywhere I went in Saigon there were lots of scooters, and in order to cross the street you had to walk out in front of traffic and the people on scooters were expected to swerve around you.  Apart from the hectic traffic I really enjoyed Saigon, and I was surprised at how modern it was.

While the ship was docked in Vietnam I also went on a trip to Cambodia.  Cambodia is a neighboring country that is west of Vietnam between Vietnam and Thailand.  Cambodia has very famous ancient temples, which are a major tourist attraction. Angkor Wat is the most famous of these temples, and is on the Cambodian flag.   It was built in the 12^th century, and is a huge stone temple building that used to be in the middle of a big city.  The city is now gone, but the temple is still there for people to visit.  We walked around the temple for hours, and watched the sunset.  The next morning we returned to Angkor Wat for the sunrise, and then visited two other similar temples—Angkor Thom, which is slightly smaller, but was built later, and has faces carved into some of the towers, and Ta Prom, a less important temple that has been left as it was found by explorers in the 19^th century.  The jungle has begun to grow over the temple walls, and there are huge tree roots all over the stones.  It was very beautiful, and looked like the set of an adventure movie.  Part of the Tomb Raider movie was filmed there.

I learned a lot about Cambodia’s history, and got to see amazing buildings.  Cambodia was a very interesting place, and I’m glad I got to visit.