Saigon Binh Tay Market

To see the colours of Saigon, the  Binh Tay Market is a good place to start. 

The earlier market was destroyed by fire and this replacement began in 1863 till 1927.

It seems to be a hub for small businesses and walking through the market one get so see an enormous amount of the same merchandize.

The salespeople are assertive in their sales methods, some grabbing you other stopping you, to show you their merchandize. I left this market without buying anything.

Inside the market, among the piles of the same stock, the merchants take time out for lunch, not far from their business.

OutsIide the market smaller businesses on foot appear out of nowhere, they too have merchandize to sell.

Whether it is merchandize or food the small entrepreneur is there

The trade continues on the street and on the sidewalks.

The Central Post Office in Ho Chi Minh

Across the street from the Notre Dame Cathedral is the beautifully preserved remnant of French colonial times and the monumental Post Office of Southeast Asia.

The building was designed by Gustave Eiffel, renowned for the Eiffel Tower in Paris, during the Indochinese Empire. It features arched windows and wooden shutters in its prime time of the late 19th century.

The Central Post Office was constructed between 1886 and 1891 with distinct French Architecture with the interior lavish and ornate. It was a period where the Post Office still had a dominant place in the commercial world.

Then, the state of the art Post Offices had intricately designed marble floors and individual telephone booths where you could be connected to international calls.

Also of importance was a map of the telegraph lines that crisscrossed Vietnam and Cambodia.

The Post Office is still operational and comes with old fashion glue pots to adhere your stamps and for those who still send postcards; this is the place.

 Not to forget a picture of Uncle Ho Chi Minh himself.

Saigon Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica

In the heart of old Saigon is Paris Square, which comes with its own Norte Dame Cathedral Basilica.

Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral, built in the late 1880s by French colonists, is one of the few remaining strongholds of Catholicism in the mainly Buddhist Vietnam. 

In 1959 the statue called “Peaceful Notre Dame “  was placed outside the church and it then referred to as Notre Dame Cathedral.  Fond memories of Paris, the colonists, started creating their own petit Paris.

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It received the Cathedral status as a basilica in 1962 by the Vatican and giving it the official name of Saigon Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica. 

The Neo-Romanesque structure is almost 60metres in height and the all-red brick facade imported from Marseille.  It comes with stain glass windows, two bell towers with six bronze bells that still rings daily in its Ho Chi Minh City District 1, the downtown area.

The Virgin Mary statue which stands peacefully outside, which locals claimed to have shed tears in October 2005. Thousand visitors still flock with the hopes of witnessing a miracle. It has become a popular attraction and I am sure the local store are doing well by this. The incident was refuted by the Catholic Church of Vietnam.

The Cathedral is still an active church with services on Sundays.

Good Morning, Vietnam

Good Morning Vietnam is a 1987 American military comedy-drama film written by Mitch Markowitz and directed by Barry Levinson and stars Robin Williams as a radio DJ.

Set in Saigon in 1965, during the Vietnam War and the story loosely based on the experiences of Armed Forces Radio Service DJ Adrian Cronauer. 

Adrian Cronauer is a former United States Air Force sergeant and radio personality whose experiences as an innovative disk jockey in Vietnam and inspired the movie Good Morning Vietnam.

Most of Williams's radio broadcasts were improvised and he made the film a critical and commercial success.

Robin Williams won a Golden Globe for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. He was nominated for Academy Award Best Actor.  The film is number 100 on the list of the “American Film Insitute’s 100 Funniest American Movies. 

Ceylon, the Spice Islands

Sri Lanka had gone through many name changes in its past. It was once known as Tabrobane, Erendib as well as Ceylon. In ancient times it traded its spices with the Romans, Greeks and the Arabs.

Old 14th-century trade route maps show that almost all routes pass through Sri Lanka for their exotic spices. The Portuguese, Dutch and English found the country attractive and lucrative for their spice trade in Europe. It seems where there is spice; the Dutch East India Company was not far away.

Cinnamon or Kurundu is the real Cinnamon which is a plant endemic to Sri Lanka. Most other cinnamons are from related species of plants.  Cinnamon trade has had a long history and records show that it was used in Egypt as early as 2000BC. 

It has been used for centuries in ancient Sri Lanka, not only as a spice but also for medicinal purposes.

Today it is used mainly in baking, to spice up chocolate, beverages, desserts, cosmetics and pharmaceutical preparations. Sri Lanka is the largest producer and exporter of cinnamon in the world. 

Curry Leaves or Karapincha is a tropical tree native to India and Sri Lanka. The leaves are mostly used for seasoning and for spicing up curries. Curry leaves have many medical properties and are used as an anti-diabetic. 

Because of the climate, other spices that originated elsewhere in Asia, have flourished on the island making it the centre of the spice trade through history. 

The Ladies of Sigiriya

In the mid-1970s there was a lull between civil wars in the newly formed Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon. Peter Gelin and I grabbed the opportunity to explore the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.

Sri Lanka shares maritime borders with India to the north-west and the Maldives to the south-west. It has a rich Buddhist heritage; the first known Buddhist writings was composed on the island. There is speculation that the southern city of Calle was the ancient seaport of Tarshish, from which King Solomon is said to have drawn ivory, peacocks and other valuables.

In 1638 Dutch explorers arrived on the island and a treaty was signed with the Dutch East India Company to expel the Portuguese. The signing of this agreement initiated the Dutch-Portuguese War, which ended in victory for the Dutch. In the ensuing period, the Dutch assimilated and integrated with the Sri Lankans, creating an ethnic group named Burghers. The Dutch remained there from 1640 to 1796.

Sigiriya, the Lion Rock, is a fortified palace surrounded by an extensive network of gardens, rock-carved cisterns, moat, pools and reservoirs. The development of the site took place during the reign of  King Kashyapa (477 to 495 AD) on top of a massive rock two hundred meters high. It is famous for its Ladies of Sigiriya frescos, painted on the rock surfaces. There are references that there had once been five hundred of these ladies.  The site abandoned upon the death of the king and it served as a Buddhist monastery until the fourteenth century. 

Unfortunately, most of the frescoes were eradicated during this time as they most likely stood in the way of meditation.  There are around 6,000 Buddhist monasteries on Sri Lanka with approximately 15,000 monks.

The painting style is considered unique, with the lines painted in a form that enhances the sense of volume. With sweeping strokes and more pressure on one side, it deepens the colour tone toward the edges. The frescoes are graceful illustrations of the beautiful female figure, and all point to the direction of Kandy temple sacred to the Sinhalese.

Since my visit there four decades ago, I have often wondered whether these Ladies survived the following thirty years of civil war and chaos. I was delighted to recently discover that the site has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

De Koffie

We love our early morning coffee and we often try different beans to improve our cup. The origins of the beans are thought to have come from  Ethiopia and spread to Arabia and Asia. We were excited when we sailed around South America, with Brazil being the largest coffee producer in the world and followed by Columbia, Mexico and Guatemala. But what we found were aisles of Nescafe instant, with not a coffee bean to be found. When we found some, it was a speciality item, packaged in small overpriced boxes.The bulk exported to the world largest consumer - Europe.  

That brings us to the Netherlands and their coffee hospitality. Supermarkets offer free coffee while you shop and when you enter someone's house, you are asked: " Can I get you a cup of Coffee? " What they are saying is: "Sit with me, let us talk and share some time together"  It is called "gezelligheid" The Dutch have their favourite brand name of coffee, Douwe Egberts, which has been around since 1753, giving them the time to refine the art of coffee making and drinking

The Blue Vase

Fifty-one years ago I left my parents home in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. An opportunity to emigrate to Canada came about, but I hardly knew anything about Canada, its history or its culture.   I took the chance and looked forward to the adventure in this new country.

My parents took me to Schiphol airport with my mother visibly upset. My father, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief. World War II had produced a ten-year gap between my two older sisters and my brother and me. It had been thirty years since my eldest sister was born, and that day marked the departure of his last child.

The Dutch government paid for my airfare and included $40 arrival money. This gratuity was part of a program initiated after World War II to encourage emigration from the over-populated and war-torn country. The purpose was to help emigres to stay away and to settle abroad. If one returned within two years, the Dutch government sought reimbursement. My parents signed a notarized letter taking full responsibility for my financial affairs and no other sponsorship was required. I arrived at Toronto's Malton Airport just after my eighteenth birthday, with $70 and a suitcase filled with courage.

While returning home from the airport, my father bought my mother a large Delft blue lidded vase as my replacement. It was a typical Japanese-influenced design from the time when the Dutch were the only nation that traded with Japan. My parents are no longer alive, but the vase which stood on their sideboard for many years eventually made its way to Canada as well.

The Delft Blue Vase is a reminder of my heritage and of the day my parents wished me farewell.

And The Cat Came Back

On my return from the Sumo Wrestlers and Tea Ceremony, I was curious to know the whereabouts of Molly and my cheque I left behind.

I had left the situation in the capable hands of my first born. My daughter had some good news and some bad news to tell me. I asked for the good news first.

Wally showed up as expected along with cleats, ropes and a saw. He positioned himself close to Molly and threw a rope over the branch above her. Tying the loose end to the branch Molly was clinging to, he proceeded to saw the branch. Wally then lowered Molly attached to the branch to the ground and that being the good news.

The bad news was that she jumped off the suspended branch and disappeared back into the woods. Before that, he asked my daughter to hold out her hand and when she did, Wally pulled out his hearing aids and placed them securely in the palm her hand. Also, he had cashed the cheque, but he never guaranteed success.

The next step was to place a small animal trap behind the property. I had rented one for a few day and set some yummy tuna inside. The trapper advised me to check the trap consistently as you can not hear it when the door falls shut.

I did listen to a ruckus and upon checking found a hissing unfamiliar cat that I had never seen before who thoroughly enjoyed the tuna. I released it and kept checking the trap for Molly. After a few unsuccessful days, I returned the trap.

A few nights later I woke up during the evening and vaguely heard a cat meowing. Wasn’t sure whether I dreamed or not, but then I heard it again. I quickly ran downstairs and checked outside and found a very skinny Molly begging to come inside. She was dirty and a wound on her tail, something similar to the one on my hand.

I gently invited her inside and quickly shut the front door behind her. She was delighted to be home and was doing cartwheels going up the stairs. 

I gave her a little bit of food and water and woke my daughter with the good news and Molly cuddled up to her.

A few months later she escaped once more and we never saw her again.

 Spooky, replaced  Molly, who then replaced Akebono.