Red Means Go!

This morning was free to explore on our own. Cindy wanted to go back to a local shop to buy a ceramic sculpture. The shop was near a park with a particular sculpture.

The Park

The Sculpture

Cindy showed the photo to Sonny but he didn't recognize it. She showed it to the reception desk, no luck. We knew it was near the market so we started walking. She spotted an Uber Motorbike driver and stopped to ask him. He thought he knew where it was so he gave us directions. Then he called us back to give us new directions. We started walking. He drove up to us on his bike and told us to stay where we were, he was going to drive to where he thought it was. A few minutes later he came back. No luck. He thought a moment, said again, wait. He drove off and after about ten minutes he came back. In the meantime, we were feeling a bit awful for putting him through it. Cindy was talking to herself about perhaps it's not meant to be, etc., etc. He drove up again, showed us the picture above and viola! We had our park and thus the shop. He absolutely refused to take any money, not even something for his time or his gas. What a generous sweet young man!
And yes, we have the ceramic piece!

The Ballet of Traffic

Rules of the Road in Saigon for the few traffic lights: green means go, yellow means go, red still means go! Even knowing this we jumped at the chance to do a cyclo tour of the city. It is so hard to describe how busy the streets are and with few stop lights and many round abouts you are fair game even on the sidewalks to be a target for a motorbike. Think driving down Michigan Avenue in Chicago with the intersections minus stoplights. Nevertheless we started out full of optimism. The drivers could weave in and out of the motorbikes, cars, and buses, through traffic lights, and always manage to stay together, with ease.

Our Rides Through the City

Just Move into the Traffic

Our first stop was the wholesale flower market. Imagine every color in the rainbow bursting out of buckets, baskets, and arrangements. Dennis wants to know how they can sell thousands and thousands of flowers in a few days and still make money but then there are 11 million buyers in HCMC.

The Flower Market

The Flower Market

The Flower Market

On this trip we learned that most Vietnamese prefer to call HCMC, Saigon. And because of how the language is constructed the name of the country is actually Viet Nam and each syllable has a meaning. Viet means people and Nam means south of China so people who came from China.
After the flower market we rode through the wholesale market where they sold everything from audio equipment to zithers. Each area specialized--electronics, motorcycle equipment, appliances, metal hardware, puppies, fighting cocks, chickens, and on it went.

Audio Section of the Market

Need Hardware?

Finally we ended at one of the major pagodas in the city. We can't keep all of the Buddhas straight--fat, thin, happy, male, female. Some aren't actually buddhas but what we would think of as saints, just like home, there's a god for everyone to worship.

The Pagoda

In the Pagoda

Darling Sisters