Saturday in Saigon

Last day in Vietnam and a visit to a museum,a lacquer factory, a Buddist temple and the obligatory market stop. The style of buildings in Saigon is predominantly French Colonial Style and Gustaf Eiffel designed their impressive main egg yoke yellow coloured Post Office in 1886. The cream coloured building is the Town Hall. The 300 year old Lady Buddha sits outside the temple and with 1,000 eyes and 1,000 hands is there to sort out the worlds problems before worshipers enter the temple to worship the (male ) Buddha proper. Bit like asking mum first!
Naturally, to get to any of these places we had to take part in the 'traffic circus' featuring some of the 1 million bikes in this city. I have no reason to query this figure as I feel I have seen them all but today's memory was of a small girl riding her pink bicycle with 2 other children and a baby holding on for grim death. Just after I'd taken the photo she joined the main stream of traffic in the centre of the city, she pedalling like crazy whilst hundreds of motor cyclists missed her by inches.
What follows next are a few facts and figures about Vietnam which I have found interesting not knowing an awful lot about this country prior to arrival. Politically this country is communist although the economy is capitalist and there still tends to be a lot of 'I couldn't possibly say' from the tour guides. Facebook is prolific however - pity! It has a total population of 70 million people with only 6 - 8% over the age of 60. This is undoubtedly due to the Vietnam war which ended in April 1975 and still today the effects of the dropping of Agent Orange are evident with 70,000 dying each year from lung or liver cancer, one of the effects, and it is estimated that 1 million people lost their lives from it in total plus, of course, additional deaths and injuries from land mines.
Its capital, Ho Chi Minh City although previously called Saigon retains that name (Saigon) in the south of the country. It has a population of 9m, similar to London, but is a much smaller in area. High rise apartments and denser population per dwelling accounts for the difference. A five bedroom house on average houses 18 people.
Rice is its highest export with tourism bringing in 20% of its GDP. Bank interest rate is 6% and the average wage is $1,000 per annum. Those earning over $4,500 pay 10% tax and retirement age is 55. This isn't flexible as with a predominately young population the oldies need to move over! However, pensions are pitifully small giving a person enough money per year to buy their rice and spinach. So what do those newly retired do to fill their time? They babysit their grandchildren so that their children can work and with employment at 6 - 8% they need all the help they can get. It may appear to be tough being retired but your children are expected to pay for your holidays! Hope you're reading this kids!!