Saigon, Vietnam - 25 Apr 07

Chinatown

There will be a 5 days holiday in Vietnam, so everything is double the price. Bumper...

i went to almost all temples and pagoda in the Chinatown or Cholon area. The temples here worship all kind of Chinese deities and mostly is the mixture of buddhism and taoism. Almost all Chinese clan owned one specific temple. The cantonese owned the Tian Hao Temple or that kind. Normally, there is a Chinese school beside of the temple too.

While visiting my 5th or 6th temple, a local Chinese student approached me and talked to me in Chinese. Most Chinese over here don't speak Chinese already. Even if they do, they don't really have a very good command on it. It was kind of interesting to talk to a young student. He attended to the school in the afternoon, school time from 1.30pm until 4.30pm. Pretty short, but it will be 6 times per week. He said he wanted to practise his English too, so i exchanged email with him so that he could write to me in English.

The different between the temples in Vietnam and those i found in Malaysia in Singapore are: 1.) Temples here normally have courtyard, built as per the old chinese mansion. 2.) The temples here are highly decorated with my delicate and beautiful wood and ceramic sculptures. i found that, eventhough many chinese don't understand the language anymore, but in terms of following to the Chinese cultural things, they do it in a more thorough way than us in Malaysia.

i visited a beautiful historical church as well. The church member even opened the locked shrine hall for me. So out of 'courtesy', i pretended to pray and spend probably 20 minutes in the shrine hall reading book.



One of the many temples i visited at Cholon or Chinatown area. There are many Chinese words in the temple but Vietnamese Chinese hardly read Chinese now.



A shop selling herbs used in traditional chinese medicine.



Cha Tam Church. The church is an atractive white and pastel-yellow structure.



Street scene.


MONEY MATTER:
1.) Accommodation: USD 4
2.) Transport: 205000 D
3.) Food: 41000 D
4.) Others: Shopping - 10000 D