Lee n Tan

Once again a sluggish start to the day!

We headed out on foot at 11am to check out the sites of this city. We hadn’t had brekkie so we stopped in at the Ben Than Market and sat at one of the food stalls and had some local dishes. We saw City Hall, The Opera House (nothing like ours!!) then we walked around the downtown area and checked out the shops. Just across the road from The Opera House was a patisserie, so we stopped in and had some treats – strawberry tart and chocolate eclairs! After the indulgence we check out Notre Dame Cathedral and The Post Office all quite big landmarks in HCMC.

The Reunification Palace was next on the list and it was built in 1966 as Sth Vietnams Presidential Palace, we were able to get a free English speaking guide for this tour so that made things a little more interesting. The first communist tanks crashed through the gates on 30 April 1975. The palace has been left as it was on this day (they have fixed up the gates!!) and is still being used today for government meetings in the south. The top floor was a dancing hall and stage, the floor below was an entertainment floor for the president and his family with a cinema, gambling room, library and dinning area. From his office on another there was a a secret door to a staircase that led down to the bunker in times of bomb threats. Down in the basement/bunker where all the war rooms with maps of the enemies position, radio equipment, phones etc. it was very interesting.

Next on the sightseeing list was the War Remnants Museum – not for the faint hearted!!! It had graphic photos of the victims of the war – those who suffered torture as well as those affected by the US uses of chemicals (agent orange) which is still affecting people/children today!! When we left the museum we came across a little supermarket and found some cheese and biscuits to put in our fridge….a little treat for later.

We took a taxi back to the hotel as we were both buggered from walking for like 6 hours!! We freshened up and put our feet up for a while and ate our bickies and cheese. Once we had had enough of a rest we went for a walk to try and find somewhere to eat. We went on the opposite side of the park and found a great place…….they had OYSTER BAY SAVIOUGN BLANC on the menu!!!! We of course had to have a bottle. The meal was good …….the wine was fantastic!!!!

WHAT AN INDULGENT DAY!!!

Woohoo it’s DAY 100!!!

The only problem was it was very uneventful. I had a terrible night sleep, bites on my back played havoc (still!!). Hence we didn’t get moving till late. We went and had brunch at Kim Cafe – as we missed the free breakfast. The food was very nice, I had Chicken with Lemongrass and Lee ordered Pork in Fish Sauce. My meal arrived very quickly but after 30mins his still hadn’t arrived, we asked our waiter and he rang out the back in a big flap….they had forgotten it (2nd time this trip they have forgotten his meal). We didn’t quite know what to expect but we it did arrive it was delicious not too much of the fish sauce taste as it was so heated it had caramelised. 2 out of 2 meals now that have been awesome.

While we were eating/waiting for lunch it started bucketing down so we decided to go back to the hotel and upload some photos and update my posts!!

Before we headed back we popped into a travel agency and checked out tour options for down south in the Mekong Delta. The owner of the agency is from a little village down there and he does private tours through his village, we will book one in the next couple of days!!

It’s 8.30pm now and we are still at it!! I think its time to call it quits and have some food!

We went for a walk and took a seat at a corner restaurant that served Pho (Vietnam is famous for its Pho). Lee had Beef Stew with Bread and I had Pho but with no Beef (by mistake) but they were both very good. We made the mistake of sitting outside on the street so we were hassled  by all the street sellers, one girl quite disabled selling books had Lee’s ear and next minute he was getting a massage from a guy that had been hanging in the background. We both didn’t quite know what to make of it and we let him carry on with his massage. He gave Lee a real beating and then at the end – of course – asked for money and then wanted to give me one. It took a couple of minutes to make him understand I didn’t want one, we gave him some money and he walked off. Our little disabled friend said ‘make sure you ask how much before next time….everybody wants money in Vietnam’ wise words!!

We walked around a bit and stopped in this little shop and Lee found this beautiful green necklace for me, then we made our way back to the hotel.