Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

SAILING INTO SAIGON

The Saigon River, a beautiful yet treacherous waterway; the tides restrict large ships like ours to maneuver only during certain hours of the day - during an incident, our ship struck and sank a rice barge near Saigon port

THE MEKONG DELTA

Sailing down the Mekong River - villages dotted the banks of the ever-fluctuating river (left); fishermen sit on a wall, waiting for the tides to carry fish into their nets (right)

That's me, enjoying a coconut drink

Off the main river, the Mekong Delta splinters into thousands of small, interconnected waterways

A lone Vietnamese woman crosses a bridge in the distance

VILLAGE BUDDHIST TEMPLE

In a village outside Saigon rests a Buddhist temple; monastic buddhism still thrives in Southeast Asia

Buddhist statues and urns adorned the temple grounds

HOC MON SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF

Outside Saigon, we visited the Hoc Mon School for the Deaf, a school designed to better the lives of deaf and hearing-impaired children. Here, these children get valuable training, instead of being ignored in the public schools.

DOWNTOWN SAIGON

One of the main squares of Downtown Saigon (left), with the famous Saigon Opera House (right) situated in one corner

One of the communist government buildings that are scattered about Saigon

The famous Rex Hotel: During the war, this hotel was packed with journalists and statesmen

The Saigon Post Office: all mail and telephone conversations in Vietnam are monitored closely, especially for foreigners such as ourselves

The former Presidential Palace; it was here where helicopters lifted desperate people from its roof as Saigon was being taken by the Communists

These street children endeared our hearts yet made us stop and think; they made more money selling postcards and trinkets to tourists than the average worker in Vietnam - what incentive do they have to go to school and find a job when that job would pay them less than they make now?

In the Saigon night, motorcycles carrying whole families race through the streets. I managed to capture one such family as they sped by me

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