Dawn broke through a bit of smog in Ho Chi Minh City, HCMC from now on. This is the city of scooters, motorbikes, noise, pollution, hawkers, chaos. We have never seen so many bikes, going in all directions horns going as they all manage to miss one another. Crossing the road is a leap of faith!!! The hotel is simple and clean a step down from KL, but OK. The staff are friendly and helpful. We decided to walk the local sites, so after breakfast we stepped out into the heat. Paul did get involved with a man carrying coconuts and water, should have kept moving, but asked a question and that is a yes to selling you anything. He bought a coconut with the top sliced off and a straw for £4.50, probably 10times over the market rate, but when you ‘re dealing in thousands it’s a bit confusing. As a result all today’s purchases related to one or two or more times a coconut drink!!
First stop was the Cathedral Notre Dame and the post office. The cathedral was very simple inside and out. Great French influence here not shown in this particular piece of architecture. The post office definitely had a European style. Hawkers outside and tourist police to make sure we carried our bags and cameras safely and to help us across the road!
Notre Dame Cathedral
Post office
Inside the post office
From here we walked down Dong Khoi towards the Saigon River. We took in the Opera another old colonial building before we went inside an air conditioned mall to cool down and have iced coffee.
Front facade of the Opera, pity about the posters
From there to the river frontage. Bliss I hear you all sigh, rubbish, smelly, and muddy was the reality. Not a pleasant river frontage. Paul enjoyed taking photos of the river boats and motor bikes, I just was looking to plug the aroma, not my favourite place this holiday!
Boys at work?
We walked from the river back to the hotel and decided a cool down was in order, so we organised and booked tickets. Firstly for our bus trip to Phnom Penh on Sunday, and then a day trip to the Mekong Delta tomorrow. We also browsed trip advisor for restaurants for tonight’s meal and asked the receptionist to book it for us.
A walk around the market was the afternoon trip. A real experience. Butchers with no refrigeration, fish and eels either on ice or alive, loads of dried fruit and fish, nuts, teas, coffee and that’s just the foodie bit. The photos will probably give you an idea!
Fish sellers
Butchers!
General picture of the market
In the evening we took a taxi and went to a great restaurant called Cac Gach Quan, very busy and really good Vietnamese food. The menu was huge, so we asked the waiter to choose for us and he did a great job.
The beautiful river