A Stroll about Ho Chi Minh City

We had a good night's sleep thanks to our fatigue and modern medicine. As I pointed out yesterday, the scooter rules Saigon. Apparently there are 11 million people in HCMC (this is how I will now refer to Ho Chi Minh City) and 7 million scooters.

Our room looks out at the Reunification Palace, which was the last stand for the Americans as they were being booted unceremoniously out of Vietnam in 1976. We will visit this place in a couple days so more about it then.

After breakfast, we set out on a walking tour of District one, outlined for us by our guide. It lead us first to Notre Dame Cathedral, an 1888 construction, of which all materials were imported from France. Right now it is undergoing quite a renovation with both sides totally wrapped in scaffolding.

Across the street from the cathedral is the colonial Post Office which is more like a classic rail station. There was a lot of activity here with people selling intricate diaramas and a group of dressed up ladies at a photo shoot.

From there, we wandered down a booksellers walking street.

At the end of this street was the Hard Rock Cafe, always a destination for me.

As we continued our walk we encountered a couple of excellent wine shops where we stocked up.

We then made our way down to the Saigon River, with its wartime guns still on guard. From here, you can also see the intense modern development spreading out from HCMC.

As the heat built up, we felt obligued to stop for a drink. Everyone had a beer while I had something fancy with sugarcane and lemon grass.

On the way back to the hotel we passed more interesting buildings like the Skydeck and the Plant(?) Hotel.

When we were almost at the hotel, I had my Birkenstocks rebuilt. As the guy started working on them I had no idea what this was going to cost, and it ended up totalling around $30 - probably more than I should have paid, but not bad for new shoes. Once we cooled off in our air conditioned rooms - thank the Lord for that! - we headed back up to the pool for two for one cocktails and some serious chill time in a 30 degree pool.

As we set out for dinner tonight we witnessed the setup of the night market around Ben Thanh Market. It was with military precision that the vendors wheeled their canopies and goodies to their sites.

Tonight we opted for one of the restaurants on our guide's list - the Mountain Retreat rooftop restaurant. It was supposed to be only a 10 minute walk from then hotel, but because of major construction we(I) were thrown off kilter and ended up taking the scenic circuitous route at around 30 minutes - Oops! In all fairness, this was not an easy place to find. Then to add insult to injury, we had a 7 and 1/2 flight set of stairs to get to said rooftop. Fortunately the breeze was welcome and the views were not shabby.

We had six plates that we shared and all agreed that the food was delicious and the stairs were, if not annoying, then at least worth the effort. We are confirming what we have understood about Vietnam - it's mostly about the food. Our return to the hotel was only the 10 minute trip that we initially anticipated and we got to experience the night market while continuing to dodge motor scooters. Do they keep a tally of daily motor scooter annihilations? So far we've seen no sign that anyone is dieing in this caotic traffic.

Back at the hotel we all decided to cash it in, what with all the steps we put in today. The bonus is that tomorrow we don't need to do much - maybe some pool time.