HCMC day #2.....

                   The tourists guideline for visiting HCMC in late October has to be ---leave your hotel

I think this was a pre-wedding photo session....

room early and expect a very heavy rainfall for at least a couple of hours between 3 & 6pm. I am getting into the rhythm now and the locals tell me that a dryer period should be taking in another couple of weeks. Dryer, apparently does not equate to cooler--one Vietnamese wag joked to me that that there are only two seasons in the south, hot and hotter!
                  Before I go any further, my apologies to Ho Chi Minh City. I blogged yesterday that there

Three lovely ladies being blessed by Uncle Ho.....

was no subway system ---soon that will be an untrue statement! Apparently it is currently under construction as a joint aid project with the Japanese, the tunnels being excavated at a considerable depth so as not to be an inconvenience to the frenetic traffic & densely populated city. Illustrations on the hoardings at the construction sites indicate that underground shopping plazas above the railway lines are being included as part of the project......listen up Toronto city fathers---maybe we should apply for foreign aid assistance from Japan to improve/extend our 50 year old, two line network!!
              My walking plan today was to amble the side streets across the city in a generally easterly direction, with first port of call being the impressive Peoples' Hall, a beautiful structure in traditional French/Asian colonial finished in that sand coloured finish that was the distinctive hall-mark of the French colonial period. The Hall fronts onto a large rectangular plaza and is dominated with a large statue to a benevolent Uncle Ho looking

Mr. Dung, my photographer friend....

forward down on his comrades. The location was well attended by tourists and with young Vietnamese couples anxious to record their new relationship for the family albums. The street photographers gods smiled and I crossed paths with a delightful group of four young ladies dressed in traditional outfits, who were kind enough to permit me to click away on my trusty Nikon. Striking to me is the fact that this plaza is a shrine in the city for the Communist struggle and that it is lined with high-end 'famous names' boutiques and luxurious five star hotels. Times are a changing! My other interest at this very location was to recall that during the very darkest days, during the 1968 Tet offensive, of the "American" war, it was this very same Continental hotel that the western media corps sheltered in on the roof top bar while aiming cameras down at the streets below, where heavy fighting raged. In fact,

I might as well wash my feet in the warm rain....

at least one the hotels boasts of its association to the events with framed pictures of the (enemy) US press corps in residence, posted to the wall at the entrance!!
                  After purchase of packaged sustenance at a small western style convenience, I turned south towards the river--wide, odoriferous and dirty, located a bench under the trees and ready to relax the tired legs and consume three bottles of assorted liquids. In the extreme heat and humidity one is wet through and can fatigue more rapidly than one might tend to on a chilly day in Toronto! I was approached by a very friendly young Vietnamese street photographer, Mr. Le Hoang Dung aka: Tumi Le who requested a shot of this senior western back-packing tourist about to enjoy his sandwich. Who am I to refuse such a request when I have approached many kind people for similar consideration during my month in Vietnam? Mr. Dung, a systems engineer who speaks beautiful English and I, chatted for fully a couple of hours comparing our philosophies on life and street photography. Most informative and very interesting, Thanks Mr. Dung.