Chua Ba Thien Hau Temple

Still in China Town, we visited Chua Ba Thien Hau Temple.  The roof is decorated with small delicately fashioned porcelain figurines showing themes from Chinese religion and legends. The temple is dedicated to Thien Hau, the indigenous goddess of the sea who is said to protect fishermen and sailors.

 

The inside of the temple is a partially covered courtyard, at the end of which is the altar to Thien Hau. 

 

The exposed portions of the courtyard contain incense burners, and open the view to the remarkable porcelain dioramas that decorate the roof. The dioramas show scenes from a 19th century Chinese city, and include such colorful figures as actors, demons, animals, and Persian and European sailors and traders.

The altar to Thien Hau is dominated by the three statues of the goddess. The faces are bronze in color, and the clothes and crowns are multi-colored.

This is the god of marriage and the kitchen.  Couples will come here to have some of their wedding pictures taken.  And also come to give offerings so they may be good housekeepers and cooks to keep their husbands happy.

Cho Binh Tay Market

We headed off to China town to the market there, and guess what I found??

Fabric!!

But our tour guide must've known we'd be there all day if we stopped, so she kept moving. 

Hats galore!

We even got the kids some super cool motor scooter helmets for them to wear on their bikes. 

Candy 

This is the grave of the man who started the market. He did a lot of good things for the poor merchants in the area, so they buried him on his land in what is essentially the center of the marketplace.  Now the merchants go there to make offerings to him and burn incense before and after they open their stalls. 

All sorts of herbs and mushrooms for what ails you. 

Dried fish. 

Flip-flops anyone? 

How'd you like to scooter this load around?

 

I could've spent hours in this market!  But alas, we didn't have much time, so I had to skip ogling over the fabric and move on to our next stop...

War Remnants Museum

Because of our fathers' involvement in the Vietnam War, we were interested in visiting the War Museum to learn more about it.

They had many US Military items that had been left behind:

A lot of the items were difficult to look at, and I was impressed at how well the kids handled it and the questions they asked.  I love how they are able to look at some things and know that it is horrible, but that it was something that happened during a very difficult time for that country.  Not that it makes the things that happened acceptable, but they could somewhat understand the reasoning behind the poor treatment that was happening.  They most definitely understand now that war is an ugly thing, and why our Armed Forces work so hard to keep it off of our shores.

A "Tiger Cage" 

Another variation of a tiger cage.  Prisioners were kept in these horrible cages.

The patch in the lower right corner (1st Calvary Division) is the patch that Danny wore when he served in Vietnam.

 

I can't say that I enjoyed the museum, because like I said, there were a lot of things that were difficult to look at, but it was, at the very least informative.  It was also interesting to get a different perspective on what we've always learned.  Our tour guide did warn us that the information was pretty anti-American, but assured us that it is no longer the way they feel towards Americans.  They view it as it was something that happened, but they don't hold a grudge against the American people - the soldiers who were here were here because they were told to go and fight.

Town Square

After lunch we went to the area of Saigon where their town hall is located.

Built between 1902 and 1908 in the French colonial style, this building has been known as Hotel de Ville, the Town Hall, and the City Hall of Saigon - but was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee in 1975. 

The Opera House

Hotel Continental Saigon 

Family Statue 

 

We went back for some night shots.

The Rex Hotel

This hotel is famous because it was a popular place for GI's to go for drinks during the war. 

 

I'm finding that I really wish my dad were alive so I could talk to him about this place.  He never talked much about his time in Vietnam, but I know that during one of his tours he was in Saigon, and I would love to be able to find out where he had been, and share a little with him about how much it has changed.

Lacquer Factory

Next on our agenda was visiting a lacquer factory.  I always like art type things, so I was interested to hear about how they made their products. And of course see what we could bring home with us!

One of the items used in their art is eggshells.  Mostly duck, because they are stronger than chicken eggs, and they burn them if they need to change the color at all.

They also use mother-of-pearl

Their pieces go through an extensive lacquering and sanding process.  Here, this man is sanding and rinsing after one of the 30ish coats of lacquer.

One of their eggshell pictures.  All the white is eggshell - not paint.

Some of their artwork does have painting to it as well.

Paint and eggshell and just eggshells.

 

We found a lot of things that we would have loved to have, but in the end we settled on a serving plate, and a couple of small plates for Grace and Tristan.

 

We then stopped at a local (mainly tourist) restaurant for lunch.

Shrimp and spring roll skewers in a pineapple.

Beef and rice cooked in coconut leaves.

All the food was delicious!