As usual, I try not to put on photos of things and places which I have posted on my articles about a previous trip.
I don't believe I have posted pictures of the airport before. Tan Son Nhat airport, when I first visited in 1997, was a run-down, derelict and dirty looking structure, whose baggage collection area opened up into a narrow and dusty road teeming with unregulated traffic.
Nowadays, it is a fairly modern, clean and pleasant place, with walkalators, orderly immigration counters and a spacious baggage collection area. Still no air-conditioned waiting area for arrivals though. But at least it is decent-looking and bearable now.
My Mum was there waiting for me. But while she can blow thousands of dollars on jackpot, she is thrifty when it comes to almost everything else so she chose to take the airport bus to the school which she runs instead of a taxi. Granted it was, at 4,000 Dong, 25 times cheaper than a cab, but considering the maximum cost of a cab would be around $12 Singapore...
It was quite ok however. Purportedly air-conditioned, we did not have to squeeze and I was able to take some pictures of the roads leading up to my Mum's school.
The sights I liked most, however, were the varied forms of street commerce that provided support to the simple folks...
And their extended families...
Vietnam, like any fast-developing country, is a land of contrasts. From filthy looking hovels and grottos, we have the fairly broad and ordered roads in the city centre.
Those of you who read my post about an earlier trip to Ho Chi Minh City may remember my shots of the opera house. This was a photograph of it from another angle.
And this is the photo of the Sheraton Hotel...
Which my Mum headed for after dropping by at her school. Not for the lush, cosy interior...
But for the mini-Casino, into which only foreigners are allowed to enter. Sounds familiar...
They of course, didn't allow me to take pictures of the slot machines and quasi-computerized gaming tables. But they did allow me to snap shots of the food which we could order for free, repeatedly.
The Filet Mignon was excellent, but more importantly, so was my Mum's luck, which meant, that blessed with my birthday star, everything she touched turned to gold, or rather, US Dollars.
That meant though, that she wanted to stay longer and much as I was happy for her, it was after all my birthday and I did not wish to spend it watching her coo over how many free bonus spins she was getting, so I walked around the area, looking for interesting sites - and found this mosque, something not very common in predominantly Buddhist Vietnam. And it was right next to the hotel too.
By the time I returned to the hotel casino, my Mum was around a US$1,000 up, so it was not that difficult to persuade her that I had been up since 4am because I had to catch the early morning flight and needed to rest. That, we did, in her 4th story walk-up apartment somewhere near her school. It was a one-room flat with an adjoining toilet - and her bed does not have a mattress. Good for the back, she said. I agreed and fell asleep promptly in anticipation of the night's programme. Or was it because I was just too tired?
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