Ken is behind with pictures seems to be busy all the time.

Today we arrived in Saigon at noon. Ken, June, Ralph and I took the 12.30 shuttle to town. It was really hot about 95 degrees and humid. We walked for three hours total we were whipped.

I was on a mission to buy a traditional Vietnamese dress. We hit a few silk shops some stunning clothing but a little too formal for me. The local representative on the ship gave me an address of a shop to visit. So we grabbed a taxi (metered) to go to this address. When we got there it was a small tailor shop. No ready to wear clothing. Only cost us $5 to get there but we were well out of the main tourist area.

Across the road we saw a dress shop. They usually only take Vietnamese money not used to tourists I guess. Their young teenage daughter was there and I think she explained it was okay to take US$ and figured pricing for them. June hit the jackpot. Two lovely dresses for $46 total. Ralph gave them $50 and said “that’s fine” The mother could not accept that she wanted to give change. We kept saying it was okay and the daughter was explaining but she kept digging in her pocket for money to give Ralph. Talk about honesty really refreshing to see.

We got a $5 taxi ride back to the shuttle bus stop. Had an hour to kill so went down a different street. Then we both hit the jackpot. I bought two Vietnamese style gowns with the slit down the side and long pants underneath. June bought a dress and jacket. These were higher priced but still okay and they are tailoring them for us to fit better and we will pick them up tomorrow. Trying on clothes when you are hot and sweaty in a non air conditioned shop is not a fun pastime for sure. But I think the effort will be well worth the trouble.

We were very tired but happy campers. June came into dinner sporting one of her $25 dresses, it looked great.