Day Two

Another great day!

We both got up at the same time once again - 5am!  We had breakfast at the hotel, eggs and toast - we've wizened up since the ramen.  They give us two slices of watermelon and two very green bananas.  Almost asked for ripe ones - but we pealed them to try, and they were perfectly ripe.  Maybe the best banana I've ever had.  Two iced coffees with milk and we're out the door.  Off to the Reunification Palace. The walk is great - more of the same street scene - everyone huddled around a lone woman and a huge kettle of pho - waiting, or eating their breakfast.

The Reunification Palace was pretty cool. Entrance fees were 30,000 Dong each (about a dollar fifty) - not bad. We arrived at open - 7:30am.  We were accompanied by just a few other museum goers - some asian - some white. The Palace has an important historical past of which we learned plenty about via 30 minute movie from the bomb shelter in the basement.  The architecture is sixties modern -  reminded us of Frank Lloyd Wright's church in Chicago.  Everything was pretty stark - mainly a white color pallet with accents of bright-light blues, blood-reds, and vibrant-mossy-greens.  As I mentioned before, narrow halled solid concrete bomb shelter below along with rooms full  of sixties telecommunication devices and a bunk room for the president.  Main floor had colorful and formal conference rooms.  Second floor had formal presidential meeting rooms.  Third had a casino decked out with funky-sixties modern furniture, a movie theatre, and the president's living quarters with a beautiful courtyard. Forth floor was a look out - just a big glass room, and you could walk out onto the roof and see the surrounding lush grounds and bustling city beyond. The air was heating up - so we moved on to see Notre Dame cathedral (just about what you'd expect).

Our walk was completed by a street food lunch.  We walked down an alley filled with starring Vietnamese people.  Walked up to the woman with the food cart.  It had upwards of ten different meats, rice, noodles, soups, etc.  I was nervously standing back from her cart - not knowing what the heck to attempt to order, and Jade prompted me to hold up one finger with a smile.  They pointed to sit down at a table (two ten inch high plastic children's stools and a make-shift table).  So we squatted and waited to see what would be brought to us.  In the mean time an 80 or so year old lady who looked like she had really lived life tried to sell us tickets to something.  She stood, uncomfortably long, waiting for us to buy tickets - or give her money - or something.  She eventually moved on to the next person eating.  A woman with a small child also walked up to us asking for money.  And then our food came.  A fried chicken drummy - rice - some veggies - a little bowl of sauce and cabbage soup.  The chicken was really great - the rest a little bland, but for 20,000 Dong (less than a dollar) who cares.  Fun to pay just a little and get to try lots of different things.

Pho 2000 - a pho chain was next.  A tiny little restaurant serving fresh and really cheap pho.  Another delicious meal for about 2 bucks.  After this, we were stuffed, and waddled back to our room for our afternoon nap/heat-retreat.

Up after an hour or so - we headed to the botanical gardens and zoo.  It was great to get away from the city noise, but the afternoon heat was wicked.  Jade's cheeks were fire-red, so we sat and watched elephants - tigers - monkeys - cakateals - and a peacock doing its mating dance.  Jade seems to know all of the great eating spots in Ho Chi Minh City, so we headed to a well reviewed sushi bar.  The AC was great, and the window view of the insane motorbike traffic was entertaining to say the least.  We had tons of sushi and drinks - everything very good.  We got the check and paid it, and then they came and corrected it, as they had over charged us by 8 bucks or so.  We would have never noticed and were charmed by the honesty that everyone had.  13 dollars later, we were stuffed with amazing sushi, and we were quite tired from the day.

6pm - we headed back to our hotel, on the way stopping at our favorite little local general store guy in the back alley of our hotel for some water.

Hit the sack and woke up at midnight.  Unsure whether we should get up and go clubbing (yeah right) or continue sleeping for our first sleep longer than 6 hours - we chose the later. We've proven that if you take naps during the day, you can only sleep for about 5 or 6 hours - wink wink - Dad.

So here we are 6:30 am just about to eat breakfast and then heading for our third full day of HCMC.
Loving our time here!