Down Memory Lane in Saigon

I kinda miss Vietnam. Sure, I may have dislocated my knee there, but heck... I miss the people, the scenery, the feel of the place, and the food was alright. Best of all, it's just nice to spend time with my dad, who works in Ho Chi Minh City as a VP of a company. He only comes back down to Malaysia to see us every three months for about a week.


In the middle of town in Ho Chi Minh City at night

It was only early January of this year that me and my mom went up to Vietnam. We stayed there for about three weeks, if I'm not mistaken. Time went by very very slow. Sometimes you'd feel restless, one hour would seem like three Malaysian hours. I'd get tired of my Dad's Nat King Cole CD playing in the hall. Nicholas, our housemate from France, would play some proper modern music like Jamiroquai from his little laptop in his room, which saves my day sometimes. When boredom catches up with me, that's when I'd turn on the cable tv, with nothing much to watch except the French channel. Improved my French a tad along the way. It's still bad though.

Though my dad didn't have much time off his job to take us around, we did follow him on his business trips out of HCMC. Dalat was a place way up in the mountains, it was much colder and breezier than Cameron Highlands or Genting Highlands. I guess it was about spring time in Vietnam then. It was sprouting cherry blossom trees everywhere in Dalat.


Cherry Blossoms trees, in Valle� D'amour (Valley of Love), Dalat

Gia Nguyen Cafe, Dalat

Coq Church, Dalat

There were many interesting churches in Vietnam. There's always a church somewhere about every ten blocks you go, especially on route to Vung Tao, a coastal town. My particular favourite was a hilltop church overlooking the ocean, which had statues of cherubims everywhere. I limped my way up their steps slowly...


Statues of a group of cherubs, Vung Tao

Rock carvings along the steps of the hilltop church, Vung Tao

View of the sea from the hilltop church, Vung Tao

I found out later that Vietnamese people even set up religious statues in their homes. Mostly on the balcony, as their houses are very narrow but high. Humongous Christian statues mysteriously sit on mountain tops too.


No, we're not looking at Christ the Redeemer of the Open Arms, on the Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, we're still in Vung Tao, Vietnam

Another church in Vung Tao, facing the sea. Tried asking for a translation to the name of the church from a parishioner, but neither of us understood each other



Well, those trips were a lot of fun, broken knee or not. Back in Ho Chi Minh City, I was still in awe of the French colonial architechture.


Hotel Continental, and the HCMC Opera House

And I didn't lose my humour.


The Bich Son Shop

That was a nice reminder of the trip. Question is, will I be able to go back there this holidays? We were planning to spend Christmas with my dad, but my mom isn't very happy with the flight prices. Plus she thinks it's pretty boring there aside from the scenery. Me, I just wanna spend Christmas with family in Vietnam with two good knees.

All I want for Christmas is my two good knees, my two good knees...