Saigon Part 3

This morning I thought I'd get a jump on the heat by going for a 7:00 walk. By then, however, the heat was already in the high 20's - so much for beating the heat. I did a circuit around the Reunification Palace and checked out the vintage tanks and aircraft left on the property as a reminder of the American loss.

Although it's clear that capitalism is alive and well in Vietnam, you do find reminders that this is indeed a socialist state, like the soviet era style posters, this one advertising blood donations.

Because of space constraints and the weather, alot happens on the narrow sidewalks, everything from shoe repair, to scooter repair, to restaurants, to hairdressing, to....you name it.

I think we are adjusting to the scooter mania here - the kamikaze street crossings and fending off scooters on the sidewalk.

We strolled through a park behind the Palace today with activities ranging from lady's dance, to one leg combat, to preschool.

This dalmation display was curiously located right beside this sign.

Following the park we made our way to the Rex Hotel. This iconic five star hotel has been around since colonial times and features a fabulous rooftop bar and restaurant that was the setting for five o'clock briefings during the war. Of course the views from here weren't shabby either. The first two pics show City Hall.

Then it was back to hotel for AC and then pool and cocktail time. In this picture you can see the locaion of our pool (the area with the greenery) and our room is on this side with the single window, third from the bottom.

Our hotel recommended a retaurant in the district 3 for dinner this evening, called MAM. Like last night it was not on a main street or well signed, but our taxi got us close and the girls did the rest.

This is a fairly new restaurant and they were very eager to please, so the service was superb, only surpased by the quality of the sharing dishes. We started with two appetizers - a spring roll and large shrimp cooked in coconut milk.

Our mains were Saigon duck,pork, sea bass and morning glory (nothing like ours) along with some sticky rice. Fabulous!! To finish, they brought us two surprises - flambeed pineapple and a lemon digestif. This was the friendliest restaurant ever. We thought they might get in the taxi and come home with us. In any case, we highly recommend MAM.