Saigon on Vespas…

January26,2025

Just to refresh your memory…as we were walking along the food stalls, our gang arrived on Vespas…

So here we are in a sort of alleyway sort of street…

Hai’s directing traffic…greeting the Vespa drivers…

We put on our helmets and there’s a hiccup…Tim’s helmet strap is not long enough…

We try a different helmet…same. So Tim’s driver takes off his own bike helmet and luckily, although the bike helmet is too small for Timmy’s head, the strap is long enough…and that’s good enough.

We took off with an exciting roar and immediately became one with Saigon traffic.

Cars and scooters jockeying for position. Surprisingly the ride felt stable and after a few minutes I was able to loosen my death grip, relax, and take photos and video.

Riding on the Vespa offers a completely different perspective from either the tour van or the convertible. What appears to be chaos while riding in a car, becomes total chaos riding pillion on a Vespa. It is amazing how close the scooters are to each other and the cars. Like really close. There were a few times when I closed my eyes …especially as we rounded corners…

…but I absolutely loved every minute …

The next few photos were snapped as we drove through various neighborhoods and back streets.

Photo credit to Timmy

Some streets were nice and wide…

After about 20 minutes we arrived at Ben Thanh market. The market sits at the intersection of four (extremely) busy streets. The Ben Thanh market is more than 100 years old and has a unique French Indochinese architecture. The market hosts 10,000 visitors a day, including lots of tourists. Hai explained that we were stopping for photos and to enjoy the local people taking their photos for the New Year…no need to go in…because we’d already visited a more authentic market.

The requisite photo…why should we be any different?

This little girl and her mom captivated me…

The mom wanted her to pose for photos…the child was having none of it.♥️

Back on the Vespas…

I appreciate that we were able to see areas that were off the typical tourist path.

We arrived at our next stop…the Bao Tang Fine Arts Museum

The museum was established in 1987 in three buildings that were built in the early 20th century.

With limited time we focused on two wings in the first building…Modern Art and and exhibit by renowned Vietnamese artist Le Ba Dang.

As we left one gallery, I took this couples photo with her camera…then I asked them to pose for one for me.

The museum’s wings are connected by an open air stairwell…allowing for these photos.

Le Ba Dang was a prolific artist…working in a variety of media.

We loved our time at the museum

Mr. D and Hai fetched us and we headed back to the ship.

I’m so glad we were able to spend most of the day in the convertible and then on the Vespas…driving in the van, although very comfortable, is limiting.

Back on Symphony we stopped in to the Bistro for a snack

Upon returning to our suite we were greeted with this lovely flower arrangement from Daniele to thank us for booking our 2026 cruises: Seoul to Vancouver…May 31 – June 30. It’s a wonderful itinerary. Then Lisbon to Fort Lauderdale November 8-23. 😊 We love the sea days on crossings …so double 😊😊.

We napped…then next thing we knew, it was time for some evening fun …

Anya Shumal plays a beautiful, soothing violin…some Crystal violinists attack their instruments (IYKYK)…Anya caresses hers.

Corn soup to start

I loved my prawn salad and Timmy really loved his Cordon Bleu.

The evening entertainment in the Galaxy featured Bruce Hammond singing Neil Diamond…

Bruce was joined by Anna Alonso for a beautiful duet…

…their version of “You Don’t Bring me Flowers” brought the house down.

So there you have our first day in Saigon…a truly special day. Thanks for following along.