Saigon

Saigon lost its name after the vietnam war.Ho chi min is its new name.

I was there in the mid of 2008,Saigon is flooded with tourist.Saigon is filled with museums,of which War Remnants museum located at Van Tat street is popular among tourist.I took a Taxi from the Reunification palace,the smartly dressed taxi man,couldnt locate the the museum for obvious reason.I pointed the museum,soon after I realize the meter touched 10 US dollars.

Shockingly,the museum is merely a walking distance from the reunification palace.

The museum carries more on vietnam site of the story,is some how gives the brief history of vietnam war.

Soon after I left the museum,a rickshaw rider who is operating from the site of the museum (could see him under the tree)offered me a rickshaw ride for 3US dollars9(He was very polite than).

The ride took almost two hours seeing some places,here he comes with a bill US20 dollars,a day light robbery,now he became very arrogant...ah!...ah!

Apparently he speaks reasonably a good English,well its tool to con tourist,I suppose!

I walked to the mouth of the mekong river,which has a rich history for the refugees.

Practically all the refugees from Saigon, used the mekong river to escape from the communist.

Ironically,the American are tourist given the first class treatment by the locals!

Cochin

I was planning a long time to observe my birthday some where outside than my country,Malaysia. Since my ancestors came from India,I decided to give serious thought about India.Kerala,the queen of arabic sea attracted me very much.
At last on the 7th of July 2010(on the eve of my birthday) I landed in Cochin International airport.What a beautiful airport!Clean and tidy.
The Abbad hotel in Culicut is some what a lovely hotel for foreigners.One can enjoy the actual Kerala ethnic food in the hotel.The staffs namely Joseph and Rajesh were very helpful.
The next day,my birthday,my legs rolled in the city of cochin.I refused the autorickshaws instead I walked all my ways with the help of cochin map.The Mattanchery palace,the jew street,jew synacogue,spice shops,fort cochin,the chinese fishing net,st.Francis xavier church are the main places I visited.
I had the opportunity to meet Sarah Cohen,one of the very few jews living in Cochin.She was very pleasant and chat with me for a while.There are less than 10 jew families lives in Cochin,the majority migrated to Israel,after the formation.bY 1970,almost the entire Jew community left Cochin.The Jew street still stands majesticaly,reminding the history of Jews in Cochin.