After staying for just a few days, Kathleen and I both felt that it was worthy of a return trip. We stayed active and walked quite a bit of the town, including one of the most popular and busy attractions, Bui Vien Street, which is filled with hundreds of restaurants and bars. But even though they call it a “walking street,” it still had traffic! Meanwhile, the reputation that Saigon has for crazy scooter traffic is justified, and crossing the street is literally an act of courage and faith.

We also did something new: we went on a food tour- going from one to the next- on the backs of motorbikes. The Saigonese Experience company was our guide, and they created an exciting way to see the rest of the city and not worry about traffic. Christain and Hannah, our guides, were amazing, and shared valuable information at each of the 10 stops along the way; some food related, some cultural. They took us to the largest flower district in the city, and one of the older neighborhoods, which was rebuilt after the Vietnam war. The delicious meals that we enjoyed were a definite highlight of our few days there! I also made the effort to appreciate Vietnamese coffee, which is quite different than coffee from other parts of the world. It turns out that Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee in the world, after Brazil.

I also went to the War Remnants Museum, which was pretty heavy…

For those of us of a certain age, the Vietnam war is not history: it is part of our lives. We may have been too young to pay close attention, or we may have been too scared to face the reality of going to fight a foreign war that many did not believe in.

My tour was deeply moving and troubling at the same time. Even though I was not actively involved in the war, I still felt guilty for the actions of my country. This was different than what I felt at the Holocaust museum which was also quite personal since my mother was imprisoned at Auschwitz. The viewpoint of the museum was that the United States was improper in their actions. And I cannot disagree. Walking by the Imperial Palace actually affected me before I got there, and this was the last place where significant war activity took place as peace treaties were finally signed.

Overall our first few days in the south was quite pleasant, and we are now moving on even further south, to Can tho, for a few days, and finally onto another island, Phu Quoc, for about 3.5 weeks