Best day in HCMC

We had an early tour so ordered breakfast to be delivered to the room.. I ordered 2 hard boiled eggs. For some reason, the kitchen thinks we also ordered fried eggs. This has happened 4 times now. I hate to waste them but I only eat one of the two hard boiled eggs I get. Bunny always has oatmeal so we just had to send them back.
‘We left on our tour at 8:30 AM Since it is Sunday here, the traffic was much lighter this morning. It only took us an hour to get to town. We went back to the lacquer place to wait for the pedi cabs to come. We had about 20 minutes. We used the facilities, very clean, then some one told me there was jewelry on the third floor. So I had to check it out. I did find a pair of earrings. I looked at a loose ruby, my birthstone, but it wasn’t very clear.
‘The pedi cabs arrived, dropping off another group from the ship. It was pretty much a madhouse getting to the cabs which were all over the sidewalk. A man grabbed me by the hand and led me to his cab. I got in, he took my picture with my phone and we set off as a group. We got a different viewpoint seeing things from ground level. We were one with the scooters! It was a little intimidating to be so close to cars, buses and scooters. We went by several of the same things we’d seen before but this time we actually saw them and got to take photographs. We went by Notre Dame Cathedral swathed in rigging just like the original in Paris. It is built just like the one in Paris bit it’s made of brick. We saw the Reunification Palace, where the President lived during the war. We also saw the Opera but I don’t think I got a photo. We finished the pedi cab tour in front of Notre Dame and across from the Post Office. We went in there. Not sure if it’s still used as a post office. It was full of coffee shops, jewelry kiosks, and souvenir places. From there we boarded our bus again and went to the Chinese Market. It’s a wholesale market only so we decided to stay on the bus. Next we went to a Chinese temple. I was thinking it was the same one we’d seen before so I didn’t go. Bunny came back with some beautiful pictures of a really nice temple. Should have gone! From there we went to a beautiful restaurant for a 3 course lunch. We were on the 6th floor of a building with a view of the city. The food was delicious and there was lots of it. It was much better than the place we went last night.

Our tour last night was HCMC by night. There was lots of traffic because it was Saturday night. Even more people were out than the night before. We first went to a restaurant for a 3 course dinner. Then we went to a water puppet theater. There was a pool of water where the puppets were. There were several sections to the program. Children playing in the water, dragons fighting, the king losing his sword, etc. It was very entertaining. After the show the puppeteers came out for a bow. They were covered in waterproof clothing and had been in the water manipulating the puppets from behind the screen. There were 8 of them. Then we took the tour of the monuments by dark, same as night before.. We couldn’t see anything. It was still a nice tour but today’s was better. I have photos of the water puppet show I will share tomorrow.. it’s our last day here and we have no plans except shopping at the tents on the pier.

Photos: Bunny in the pedicab, Reunification Palace, now a museum, not sure what the next one is but it’s flying the Vietnamese flag and a flag with a hammer and sycle (sp?)on it, pretty lotus fountain, Notre Dame, next are 2 photos with an American tank, and a Chinook helicopter and fighter jet. They are outside a museum. The last 4 are of the restaurant where we ate. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Vietnam. We have a day at sea to rest up for Thailand. We’ll be seeing elephants!