Hot, Hot, HOT

Can we talk about the weather here for a moment?  To say that it's hot here is the understatement of a lifetime.   It's like Dante's Inferno out there.  Today it was supposedly 90 degrees outside, which was probably true.  However, here in Vietnam we've got a little thing called humidity going on, which means that 90 degrees at 87 percent humidity actually feels like 102 degrees at 2,000 percent humidity.  For real.  And then it poured rain around lunchtime, complete with thunder and lightning, which made the humidity skyrocket to at least 4,000 percent.  The sad thing is that for Vietnam, this is a cool-down.  We are actually here during the cooler part of the year.  If we had been here a mere three weeks ago, we would have been dealing with temperatures that the Weather Channel reported as being 100 degrees, feels like 118.  I can't even imagine.  As it is, the minute you step outside you are hit in the face with sauna-like heat.  You're practically swimming through the air when you're walking around out there and you're drenched in sweat within minutes.  There's a couple in our tour group from Mississippi and they said that 105 degrees there feels cool and not at all humid compared to this steam bath.  And I won't even talk about what this is doing to my hair except to say that most of you wouldn't recognize me and clearly Frizz Ease, gel and a terrific flat iron are no match for Vietnam.  And what absolutely mystifies us is that most Vietnamese people dress in a way that's very covered-up.  As in long sleeved shirts and long pants, or the beautiful long-sleeved long dresses that are worn over slim trousers.   Vietnamese adults absolutely do not wear shorts.  Shorts are considered children's clothing.  And I don't think I've seen anyone with anything sleeveless on.  We've even seen people in long pants and jackets riding on scooters.  I can't even imagine it.  And the absolutely amazing thing is that they aren't even sweating.  Not one bead of perspiration.  While we're all dying. We don't get it at all.

Despite the torrid heat, we had a very full day of sight seeing here in Vietnam.  This morning we had a bus tour of Ho Chi Minh City, the "official" name for Saigon, although no one who lives here calls it that, evidently.  To the locals, it has always been and always will be Saigon.  It's a fairly large city of arond 11 million people, and the older part of Saigon has some very pretty buildings that were built by the French when they occupied Vietnam.  One of our stops was the old post office.

Our guide Buffalo - yes, you read that right - said that the clock is over 200 years old.  Inside we saw these absolutely beautiful carved wood phone booths.

Evidently, this was where all the American troops and personel would come to call home during the Vietnam War.

Then it was on to a mini version of Notre Dame, which was right across the street.  

There was a bride and groom there taking wedding photos.  Evidently, most brides and grooms take their wedding pictures about a month before the wedding.  They do the same thing in China, actually.  That way the pictures are out of the way and they don't have to take the time on the wedding day to get some great pictures.  Can you tell from these pictures exactly where the bride and groom are getting photographed?

Yep, right in the middle of the street.  The most logical place to take a wedding picture in a city of 11 million people as they're all whizzing by you in cars and motor bikes at the speed of light.  It's what I would do for sure.  Wouldn't you?  And I can't even imagine what it must have felt like in that dress in the heat.  Let's just say that the bride didn't look exactly cheerful through most of this photo session when the camera wasn't clicking.  I'm not sure if it was the heat getting to her or the near-death experience she was in the middle of.  Ah, Vietnam.  We love you already!

In the afternoon we went to see the Cu Chi tunnels, an absolutely fascinating experience.  I'll write about that one tomorrow on our flight to Da Nang.  Pray for smooth air.  I still feel like I'm bouncing from our flights coming over here.