Skip to main content

HO CHI MINH CITY, HANGZHOU and OSAKA

Again, no Trump.  We're leaving in about a month to the Osaka Expo, then a cruise from Yokohama to Vancouver.  Thus, today, a look at travel, featuring Condé Nast Traveler's Best Places to Go in Asia in 2025, where Osaka is featured.  First, Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, which was known as Saigon during and before their war with the U.S.

  • Has grown into one of the world's fastest growing tourism powerhouse.
  • Have been there a couple of times.  Here are some tidbits from 2009.
    • Interesting that I said the population is nearing 10 million, and expected to reach 20 million in 2020.  
    • Well, this is 2025 and the population is 9.8 million.
    • Located 1100 miles south of Hanoi.
    • That population is for the metropolitan area.  For only the city itself.
      • HCMCity  3.5 million
      • Hanoi  1.4 million
      • Da Nang  0.75 million
    • This is surprising, for Vietnam is in the northern hemisphere, but HCMCity is cooler in September than January and February because of the monsoon season from May to November.  This is when it rains more.
    • A 15-minute taxi ride is from $3-$5, but always use one with a meter, and there still is a lot of haggling.  Pre-book through your hotel to minimize being overcharged.
    • There are 78 universities and colleges in the city, with Vietnam National University at #1.  However, it only ranks #671 in the world.
    • Don't jog because there are too many motorcycles that dart around.  There are 4 million of them.  Also, bad air pollution.
    • The Sheraton, where I stayed, had the best executive club of any in the world, but only if you stay in the newer and more expensive tower, which is not so costly for a major city.
    • They have very large catfish in the Mekong River.  This one is 9 feet long and 646 pounds.

  • Oh yes, and also stingrays, perhaps up to 20 feet and 1320 pounds.
  • When I left my hotel to go to the airport:
My cab ride to Ton Son Nhat International Airport was harrowing. At 3:45AM, vehicles, at some speed, go right through red lights. Thus, I felt safer sneaking through a red light because the driver was somewhat cautious. A red is taken to be yellow here. However, barreling through a green light was high adventure because who knows what was coming from right or left. On arrival, there was a mob outside the airport, so I thought it was closed. Oh no, not another Cairo experience (see Chapter 6 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity).

  • City has a new metro which just opened.
  • Finally got a one-star Michelin restaurant, the Anan Saigon, but the best is hu tieu noodle soup from a hawker and banh mi sandwiches.  Remember, the French suffered here for a long time before the Americans, and brought excellent now fusion cuisine.
  • If you ever go to Vietnam, and you should do this between December and April, you need a visa.  Read about my ignorance and woe.
  • Condé Nast recommends you stay at the Sheraton Saigon Grand Opera Hotel....and splurge in the newer tower if you are a Marriott Platinum Member.
Next Hangzhou, China.

Thus, I woke up that fateful morning to catch a flight to Hangzhou. I got a call saying the area was fogged in, so wait in my room until further notice. Finally, I was picked up and boarded the plane, but it was still foggy. The flight nevertheless took off, and I never saw land until, a short while later, a sudden bump announced our arrival at the Jianqiao Airport. I was initially impressed with the unbelievable radar system, but then decided they had just winged it. I was alive, so all was well.

Hangzhou is located in the Yangtze River Delta. The city is 2,200 years old and is famous for its natural scenery. While the population today is greater than 6 million, in 1276, already a million people lived there. Marco Polo then called it the finest and noblest in the world.

  • From CN Traveler:
You know a city is having a moment when Chanel decides to host a runway show there—in December, the French fashion house unveiled its Métiers d’Art 2025 collection in Hangzhou, the capital of China’s Zhejiang province. This is already one of the country’s most-visited cities, with its snow-dusted Broken Bridge, picturesque West Lake, spring willows along Su Causeway, and Leifeng Pagoda silhouetted against dramatic sunsets.

In 2025, the city will highlight some of these natural attractions as host of UNESCO’s fifth World Conference on Biosphere Reserves, which will address global concerns about environmental issues, sustainable development, and biodiversity conservation. The Tianmu Mountain Nature Reserve in Lin’an—one of the first sites in China to achieve UNESCO biosphere reserve status—possesses the world's largest ancient Cryptomeria forest community, as well as the oldest natural ginkgo forest.

There are plenty of direct flights to Hangzhou, or visitors can take advantage of high-speed trains from Shanghai’s Hongqiao Station, which reach Hangzhou East Station within an hour. March to May is peak tourism season in Hangzhou, when vibrant blooms and misty rains vividly repaint its natural landscapes. There are plenty of new hotel options emerging, but those looking for a more classic stay should head to the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake.  China plans to build a MagLev line connecting Hangzhou and Shanghai.  An hour trip is cut to 9 minutes.

Condé Nast Traveler also covered Aseer Province/Saudi Arabia, Karakol/Kyrgyzstan, Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia, Muscat/Oman, Pererenan/Bali, Prayagraj/India and Osaka/Japan.  I've been to Kuala Lumpur and Muscat.  Read the article for details on those others, for I will end only with Osaka, where I visited at least 20 times in my life.
  • Here is review I made about Osaka in 2023, another posting from 2014, and an even earlier one in 2012.
    • A big attraction is the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan.
      • I went there in 2012, looking forward to the whale sharks.  Well, they were said to be on vacation elsewhere, meaning they died or were sick.
      • It was still worthwhile.
      • However, I read that there are now two whale sharks.
    • Another is the Osaka Castle.
      • Goes back to the Shoguns of the 1600s.
      • Built of wood, and has been rebuilt at least twice, if not seven times.  Earthquakes, fires and World War II also did damage.
  • Osaka World Expo from April 13 to October 13.  28 million visitors expected.  
    • The Expo is on a newly created island in Osaka Bay, called Yumeshima, with a new metro station.
    • Fly into Kansai International Airport, although the Shinkansen is only a 2.5 hour train ride from Tokyo.  You might thus be able to see Mount Fuji coming and going.
    • There is a JR Kansai Area pass for unlimited use.
    • The next Expo will be Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2030.
  • Osaka (train) Station is the largest in western Japan.
    • Food haven KITTE Osaka opened last year within the JP Tower Osaka, featuring 50-plus new dining spots embodying the essence of Japan's Kitchen.
    • Grand Green Osaka, a green space project, also opened here last year, with Umekita Park.
    • Also just opened is the Autograph Collection New Osaka Hotel.
  • Other new hotels in the city are Waldorf Astoria Osaka and Four Seasons Osaka.  Not cheap, but more than a 1000 rooms each, with a level of elegance and serenity to overwhelm.

Oh, I should warn you that for most in the U.S. (Hawaii and Arizona are exceptions), tonight you will need to move your clock one hour later for Daylight Saving Time.  You get one less hour of sleep.  From Pew.

  • Only a third of the world's countries practice DST, and those that do are mostly in Europe.  
  • Egypt ended DST in 2014, but brought it back. It is the only African nation on DST.
  • Half of countries once did this, but no longer.  Mexico stopped in 2022.
  • Very complicated exactly when this occurs around the world.
  • Did you know that the U.S. is one of the few countries with multiple time zones?  Trick question, but the U.S. has nine time zones....because of the territories.  Why....but 15 states have more than one time zone.
  • Russia has 11 time zones, all with the same time.
  • Some countries use times not on the hour.  I won't explain this, but be careful in Afghanistan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Australia, Canada and Nepal.
  • Donald Trump promised to end Daylight Savings Time.  Will he?
-

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases.  Very few are aware that a new one,   BA.4.6,  is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples .  However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6.  Here is a  reference  as to what this means.  A series of two injections is involved.  Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab  co-packaged with  cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on  subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics.  Thursday was my pandemic day for years.  Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments.  All these  subvariants  derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms.  One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell.  From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant,  BA.2.86,  also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to  lose hair  for...
Post a Comment
Read more

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota.  Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north.  Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge.  If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic.  Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing.  The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University.  Caught a bus. Was called the  Century 21 Exposition .  Also the Seattle World's Fair.  10 million joined me on a six-month run.  My first. These a...
Post a Comment
Read more