TBK Travels and I Miss Saigon

I saw this picture on a friends Facebook (Thanks to Julian Lewis at Saigon, Vietnam for permission to use your photos!) and it reminded me of my last trip to Saigon (or Ho Chi Min City as it is now called) in 2016

Another photo by Julian Lewis in Saigon, Vietnam.

So, I looked for my old pictures (now stored on an External Hard drive) and decided to write this blog. Last year I had a very expensive year staying in hotels and apartments in the Middle East waiting for the Philippine Government to open its borders to Foreigners after COV 19. Then when I finally arrived in Palawan, I had to buy furniture and equipment for my new house plus pay for my Retirement Visa. So, to avoid depleting all my savings for my retirement I decided to stay in Palawan in 2022 and in the Philippines in 2023 and not travel abroad again to the likes of Kerala, Pattaya and Vietnam / Cambodia and Bangladesh until 2024. Now when I see pictures like Julian's, it reminds me of my foreign trips over the 12 years I was in Bahrain!

I stayed for 5 days in Saigon and did many tours including one to the Cu Chi Tunnels where the Vietnamese hid from the Americans for many years. Some of the tunnels have been enlarged for Western Tourists but I resisted the temptation to try them out!

A friend got me tickets for a Schubert & Schumann in the beautiful old Opera House to celebrate my birthday and we visited the Palace

There are so many beautiful parks and gardens in Saigon and amazing old buildings with so many stories to tell. I grew up, like many, to the news reports of the American occupation of Vietnam and songs like 19. I remember Nixon and Henry Kissinger visiting Saigon and, on our tour, we saw the rooms where they met.

For me no trip is complete without a boat ride, so we spent a day on a variety of boats and horse drawn carriages doing all the touristy things!

TBK at 56 on a boat trip from Saigon

Typical Saigon Tourist photo (wow I have had that tee shirt 6 years!

I stayed in a beautiful hotel in Saigon called Hotel LeLe (if I remember rightly the name of the owner) which was recommended by my good friend Mama Jam Fernandez. I had a large, beautiful room and I apologise for breaking the luggage rack on my last night!

The hotel website above and room below

Saigon is well worth a visit- they have some magnificent old buildings like the Post office below. They are all beautifully preserved and restored.

Ho Chi Min Post office

I hope you have enjoyed my walk down memory lane as much as I have putting it together. As usual I have thousands of photos from my many overseas trips over the last 20 years including Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Italy, Scotland, The Philippines, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Salalah, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and many more. Just email me the place you would like to hear more about:

As I started with the picture Julian took in Saigon recently, I will end with one of mine of an overloaded bike. Cars are highly taxed there and the young people simply cannot afford them, so everyone rides mopeds...