Ho Chi Minh City

We chatted briefly in the morning with family, then caught our bus to the city ( took an hour and a half to get there)

Once there we were on our own so we visited a couple of very important museums including the War Remnants Museum. I can honestly say I have never seen a war museum that showed such GRAPHIC photos of people and bits of people. I couldn’t even handle much of the photos of the damage to babies from agent orange. Too terrible. Caro sat outside most of the exhibits. 

We made our way back towards our pickup point looking for specific restaurants which were not there anymore ( from the map we were given). A lady on the street asked if we were looking for a restaurant and we said yes” so she took us up the 6th floor, then opened a secret door ( it looked liked a book shelf, but with toys!) and then into her family restaurant. There were locals there so I felt OK. They didn’t accept credit cards ( we checked beforehand) however I had thrown some US dollars in my wallet which this lady assured me would be enough. 

We ordered pho, springs rolls and beers for our lunch. Total cost $US18 ( a real bargain I thought). Of course we were a couple of dollars short and had to use some of our few remaining Vietnamese Dong  which I didn’t want to use as we have 2 more days in Vietnam. 

We were back to our bus for the 3:00 pickup and the long ride back. 

My impression of the city is that it is just as crazy as Hanoi ,where you take your life in your own hands to cross the street (even when you have the green walk light). They  even drive their motorbikes on the sidewalks  and there are literally millions of smaller size ones here. The city is very dirty with garbage everywhere which seems to me to be typical of third world countries where people struggle to support themselves and just survive and clean up isn’t a priority. To come here immediately after Singapore in quite eye opening to a place where values can be so different. 

We decided to go to the hot tub where we had good conversations with various people. This was followed by a burger and fries for supper ( delicious!). 

We went to the theatre for the early show to see an entertainer called Johnny Balance and he really was good. A great show. 

We were exhausted and went to bed early.