2 Engineers Retired

View from Skydeck Ho Chi Minh City – also known as Saigon.      Amazing ribs, coolest hotel ever, propaganda, crowds, rats, smog – This place has it all.   OK – so maybe that is a bit unfair.   We felt that it would be odd to spend 3 months in Vietnam and never venture into one of the best known cities.   Saigon is not really known for tourism, although most people do visit because so many international flights land there.   Famous of course in North America because of the US involvement in the war (and some other countries). Our first visit was to the War Remnants Museum.   It was originally named “Exhibition House for US and Puppet Regime Crime” - which basically tells you what is displayed there.   It opened in 1975, so right after the war.   The new name began in 1995.   Planes in front of the War Remnants Museum This museum has 3 main display styles.   Outside there is a variety of US milit...

One of the tourist sites in the general area here is a place known as Marble Mountain.   Marble Mountain is actual a cluster of five hills mostly full of marble and limestone.    Hence the name.    They are named after the five elements namely metal, water, wood, fire and earth.   The site is ancient full of caves and sites for worship.   Water mountain is the one made accessible to visitors, and might be the largest.   It is certainly the one set up to receive tourists. The location is about halfway between Da Nang and Hoi An, and for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to book two Grab motorcycles to make the trip.   For the uninitiated Grab is the local version of Uber and you can request either a car or a motor scooter (cheaper, but good only for one passenger).   Turns out this is a fairly long way to sit on the back of a scooter, and we ended up taking an A/C Grab car home. Beautiful Gateway...

The picture that raced around the internet.   This photo (well one like it taken by someone else) which took off like wildfire last summer is a picture of the Golden Bridge.   It opened for the public here in June of 2018.   The eerie sense of power and mysticism that the image provoked sent me immediately to find out where this bridge was. So – I was delighted to learn that this bridge was located very close to Hoi An. And it also turned out that this bridge was not a recently discovered ancient treasure.   Nope – it is part of a theme park called Sunworld Ba Na Hills.   This certainly reduced the cool factor for me, but good little tourist that I am, I still wanted to go.   I could not possibly be so close without taking the actual photos for myself. Most of the photos I had seen, plus the internet chatter, showed crowds of people on the bridge.   Crowds are not my thing so we needed to find a way to reduce or eliminate...

Hoi An Vietnam is not a nearby destination for the majority of people we know.   It is however in reasonable striking distance from Singapore.   Why Singapore you ask?   Singapore is the home of my cousin and his wife, and they became our first guests here in Hoi An. Lunch on our cycling day It was extremely fun to see familiar faces here, and to do things together – some things we had done on our own privately and some we had not.   Grant has lived in Asia for 20 or so years and met his wife here, so is totally at home with any of the oddities of life here. They were here for about 4 days and activities included the gamut of temples and old buildings in the ancient town, the temple ruins of My Son and An Bang beach (on their own). Two particular activities stand out. One was a day of cycling through rice paddies, the farming areas and the quieter areas of the greater Hoi An area (Cam Than ward).  Cycling in this area is particularly char...

Welcome to the year of the pig! The Lunar New Year (Tet) has arrived and it has been amazing to watch and be part of what goes on. First, in the days, and yes weeks, leading up to Tet the city’s homes, streets and downtown area were gradually being finished (if in process), cleaned, painted, and decorated.   The streets were full of flowers to be purchased and brought home.   Kumquat trees in large planters showed up at businesses and some homes.   The actual day before so many people were washing their motorbikes, so the street edges ran with soapy water all over. Check out the little red bows on each stem Kumquat tree set up at a commercial business Tet eve was also and interesting day.   We knew it was the last day the market and local minimart would be open for a bit – they close for 3 days – and so there was an early morning run to stock up on food to last over the shutdown.   The market was crazy – with everyone doing more of less ...