February 19 & 20: Illness and Rebound

I am combining two days of posts, because yesterday, 2/19, was very slow. We experienced essentially three things on the ship: (1) we had breakfast in the morning in the Gold Lounge; (2) we went to the 11am Meet & Greet, for all of the Our Gang tour group; and (3), we went to the medical office at 4pm. We actually went earlier about 1pm, but they were not open. The afternoon/evening of February 18, Patrise started to experience a cough. The coughing became worse throughout the morning of the 19th and she also began experiencing chills. She took a COVID-19 test that proved to be negative. Still, we made our way to the Medical office about 1pm and it was not open. Thus, we returned at 4pm, when it was due to be reopened. Meanwhile, her chills and fever grew worse and she was feeling generally bad, lacking energy and an appetite.

The nurse gave Patrise another COVID-19 test; it too came back negative. However, Patrise had a fever of 380 C (100.40 F). After the doctor examined her, he gave her some cough medicine and ordered rest. That part was obvious, because she was too drained to do anything else. So for the rest of the afternoon and evening, she slept and rested, while I read and worked on other things. I managed to finish reading my first book, "This Other Eden". Although the author claims it is not meant to portray actual historical events, apparently it parallels the events of what happened to a mix-race group of people who inhabited Malaga Island, off the coast of Maine: so much so, that the book has become controversial, especially with historians and descendants of the Malaga Island peoples who were eventually expelled due to notions of racism and eugenics present in early 20th century America. It is not an easy read. The prose is lyrical, but also long and at times, it borders on fantastical in its nature. Still, the book and the author are up for the National Book Award and the Booker Prize.

This morning arrived, and fortunately, due to her rest, although she was not fully recovered, Patrise felt well enough to attempt the day's tour of Ho Chi Minh City. This would be our only day -- perhaps the only time in our lives -- we would spend in Vietnam, and she did not want to miss it, if at all possible, She was not feeling totally well, but soldiered on nevertheless. Here are the first photos if Vietnam that I took from our suite balcony.

After a light breakfast -- hers, due to a lack of appetite and mine due to the fact that they do not cook scrambled eggs or grits with salt and I did not have enough time for salt to be delivered to the room -- we met the tour group at the designated place on the ship. We disembarked, showing our Vietnamese visa cards to the proper authorities in order to exit the boat. After some confusion, we caught shuttle buses that took us outside of the port gates, only to have to get off of those and get on a different set of buses. Why? We never received an explanation of why.

From the port entry gate, we then had a two-hour ride from the port of Phu My (Foo Mee) to Ho Chi Minh City. It was all new and fascinating to me. Here are some of the many photos, I was able to take from the bus moving at 90-110 kpm (55 -- 65mph).

When we reached the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City (hereinafter abbreviated as HCMC), the differences between the countryside and the city were stark and immediately noticeable: skyscrapers, much more traffic, tens of thousands more motorcycles. Our guide's name was Hunh, but he said to just call him "Harry" as in Harry Potter -- his suggestion, not ours. "Harry" explained that whereas Hanoi is the capital city of the nation, its financial center and most populous city is HCMC. Ho Chi Minh City is vibrant, buzzing, alive with humanity. As Harry further explained, the city's population is 10 million people, there are 1 million cars, but there are 8 million motorbikes! That is easy to believe, because everywhere we looked motorbikes were clearly the dominant transportation mode.

Our tour of HCMC took us to four locations -- three before lunch and one after lunch. Before lunch, we first visited a pagoda, where active worship still takes place. As Harry explained, it is a combined pagoda for Taoism and Buddhism, which was curious in itself. Yet there it was, with some spaces having symbols of Confucious and others having symbols of the Buddha. We were encouraged to light a stick of incense and make a wish before going inside. Also that was the time and place to take pictures, because once inside, no photos were allowed to be taken nor hats to be worn. Here is my good wish incense photo, along with other photos of the outside area of the pagoda.

From the pagoda, we headed to the Independence Palace. This building has so much symbolism in Vietnam's modern history. Before the conflict with the United States, it was the seat of power for the President of the "Republic of Vietnam" that Americans would refer to as South Vietnam. At some point, the old palace building was bombed by two South Vietnamese Air Force pilots who had switched allegiance to the North. Then, after a national architecture competition and a Vietnamese architect was chosen and redesigned a new building, the Independence Palace was built between 1961 and 1966. Throughout the Vietnam conflict -- Vietnam was never officially declared a war by the U.S. Congress -- the President held all of his important meetings here: cabinet meetings, meetings with ambassadors from other countries, war strategy sessions and briefing with his military officers, etc. Here then are photos of some of the rooms inside of the Independence Palace.

Here are photos of the communications center and equipment that was kept in the basement of the Palace, the so called "Bunker Room."

In the waning days/hours of the Vietnam Conflict, these two tanks (pictured below) burst through gates of Independence Palace, as the force of North Vietnam overran it and basically took control of the country. Subsequent to the North winning, Independence Palace was renamed Reunification Convention Hall, just as Saigon was also renamed Ho Chi Minh City. (For people how are too young to remember or who have not studied the history of the Vietnam Conflict, Ho Chi Minh was the leader of North Vietnam and he led a unified Vietnam in the early days of the country's history.)

When we left Independence Palace, our last pre-lunch stop was the old central post office. The post office was styled and built in a French architecture style. Recall that Vietnam was actually a part of France's Indochina colonies for many years, before the French withdraw their armed forces, only to be substituted by America as it tried to defend the South Vietnam government's resistance to forced unification with North Vietnam. So, we went to see the post office, and along the way we passed the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The architecture of the post office and the existence of Notre Dame and other catholic churches are remainders and reminders of Vietnam's French heritage.

In making our way to the post office, we crossed a street on foot. Led by Hunh (Harry), we were reminded to walking steadily, hold up our hands, and don't stop. That is the way pedestrians navigate street crossings through the many motorcycles, cars and buses that flood the streets. Once inside the post office, I took pictures of the interior, including a couple of pictures of Ho Chi Minh, and purchased some items as souvenirs. Take a look...

(Row 1: Side view of Cathedral of Notre Dame, undergoing rebuilding, views of the statute to the Virgin Mary in front of the cathedral.

Row 2: Exterior views of the Post Office of Vietnam.

Row 3: Interior views of the old Post Office.

Row 4: Highlands Coffee Company sign [and there are also several Starbucks], photos of Indonesian tourists in front of the Post Office.)

The last photos of the Indonesian families reminded me to say that one of the observations I have made of this part of the world is the degree to which their economies are integrated. In Singapore and in Vietnam, I've seen scores of Indonesian, Malaysian, Chinese, Filipino, and Indian tourists. I imagine I have probably seen Cambodians, Laotians as well, but I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to identify them. And speaking of economies, it may surprise you dear reader to learn that Vietnam's #1 trading partner is not China, rather it is the United States. Amazing how peace has brought about something that we never could have imagined 50 years ago, as the decade-long conflict was lunging to its chaotically dramatic end (officially on April 30, 1975).

We then headed to lunch at a nearby restaurant, where we had a nice prix fixe meal.

After lunch, the group voted to go to a local lacquer factory, rather than the Vietnam war museum. Our time was such that we really did not have adequate time to visit both and still get back to the ship before it got too late. Patrise was running down by this time, and I was tired as well, so we did not get off as see the lacquer factory and its artisans work. I did not feel I was missing much, as we had visited a lacquer factory in Beijing China years ago and even purchased a beautiful, large Lazy Susan. I may be wrong, but given the proximity of the two counties and their long history of cultural mixing and exchange, I thought the techniques used by the Vietnamese would bear some similarity to those used by the Chinese. Presumptuous maybe, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it (LOL)!

Here are some additional photos taken from the bus, as we headed back to the ship.

Once back in our suite, we were both very tired, and so we took a nap -- about two hours for me and three hours for her. We woke up in time to join the rest of the Our Gang group for dinner in the assigned dining lounge. It was our first time doing so. The service was not as good as in the Gold or Silver lounges, but the company was good. It was nice getting better acquainted with some of our travel colleagues. Three of the people seated with us were from Atlanta: Deborah Lott-Robinson and her husband Rob, and Patricia Lott Jeter. Yes, Deborah and Patricia are sisters. Furthermore, we knew their sister, Kaneta Lott-Cuffie, and her husband, Tom Cuffie, quite well. Kaneta has been our dentist in years past. Tom was a prominent attorney and long time City of Atlanta council member. Prior to becoming an attorney, Tom had been a member of the Atlanta Police Department. Their son, TC (Thomas Cuffie, Jr.) has grown up in Jack 'n' Jill with our daughter, Randi. And last but not least, their daughter has been our orthodontist, fitting both of us with Invisalign braces. How small the world is.

After dinner, we returned to the room. Patrise went to bed right away. She continues to need a lot of rest as she battles this chest infection. I stay awake for a couple hours, not feeling at all sleepy due to the earlier nap.

Tomorrow would be a day of cruising , as we headed for our next port of call, Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Thailand.