Thursday we began our travels with a bus ride through the Chinese-Vietnamese district of Ho Chi Minh City
This community has been settled with People of Chinese descent since the 17th century according to our guide. The streets are reminiscent of NYC Chinatown, though even more crowded and of course full of the ubiquitous motorbikes. The streets were full of red and gold in anticipation of the Lunar New Year coming soon. We also stopped at a Taoist temple dedicated to the local goddess who is believed to have saved a ship full of Chinese immigrants to Vietnam. We took some time to pose by the lucky money wall in the temple.
Along the way to the Mekong River to meet our ship, we stopped at a lacquer factory to watch how lacquerware is made. The most interesting craft to me was the placement of egg-shells into the wood. Painstaking and involving many steps placing new layers over old ones with varnishing and polishing steps in between.
The figure on the left above is a unicorn. Very different from the pretty pink and purple version we usually see at home
