Erections in Saigon.

Saturday.

Happy surprise. Even though the Duxton charge a ridiculous price for broadband in-room it’s complimentary in the restaurant, so there are lots of laptops out at breakfast. Good breakfast, all the sorts of things we’ve come to expect.

On the to-do list today is organise our Mekong Delta boat trip tomorrow and figure out how we’re getting back to the airport on Monday. Anke got the Delta trip sorted and it’s a toss up between just taking a taxi to the airport or book a transfer with SaigonTourist. Taxi might be the go.  Pick-up time tomorrow is 7.30am. An early start! Hoooorrraaayyyy!! NOT!!!

Bitexco Tower

great view from up here

Our first erection (sorry, it's all the phallic shapes around town) for the day is the viewing platform at the Bitexco Tower. Inspired by the lotus flower bud, it’s 68 floors tall and costs 200,000VND pp to go up, cheaper for seniors. It’s a clear day today, some high cloud but visibility is good so we are treated to an amazing 360 degree view of Saigon from the 49^th floor. Very handy location for us, just around the corner from our hotel.

Anke has caught a cold and is not feeling like having a big day so with Bob, she goes back to the Duxton to change and have a cuppa and a rest. The rest of us head in the direction of the next erection, a Hindu temple we saw from the tower, Sri Thendayyuttha Pani. The people there are very welcoming and invite us to go up onto the roof platform to see another shrine. It’s lovely. We pick up the trail of the Lonely Planet walking tour which takes us past the Rex Hotel, so we just have to go up to the Rooftop Bar for a drink, after all it’s very hot. And the prices are a lot more than we've become used to. The walk takes us past the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, might have been worth a look if we had more time, then we find our way to the Reunification Palace and decide to go in, 30 000 VND each, so pretty cheap. Getting hungry so seek out some food. We find a terrific place between the Reunification Palace and the Notre Dame Cathedral, our next stop. The Restaurant is called Au Parc, we think because there is a park across the road. The food is great and it’s a top find.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Reunification Palace

We’ve still got time to see a few more erections, so it’s over to the Cathedral and across to the Post Office, which was originally built to be the train station, but the train track never came to town. Brenda’s keen to go to the Ben Thanh market, I could go with her, Carolyn wants to call it a day, so with a bit of thought, we decide to head for home and try to get in a swim, but once we get to our rooms, that’s it. Bob and Anke are in their room following a mammoth shopping spree but I can’t say what they’ve bought, except that Anke has some lovely fabric that she’ll make into a couple of tops, and they’ll look very nice.

We enjoyed the night market so much last night, we head there again, but by the time we get there it’s already being set up. We’ve missed seeing the mad rush to claim their spots. Maybe they start a bit earlier on a Saturday? Anyway, we find food, probably not as good as last night, but you don’t know if you don’t try. It could have been better. If you stood out the front of the Ben Thanh, we went to the food place in the side street to the right of the markets the first night, and the side street to the left tonight. Bob and Anke hit the stalls again for more shopping (watches) so we leave them to it and go for ice cream at what's becoming our 'regular' spot, Blue Cafe in the street behind the Ben Thanh market. Time for bed for an early start tomorrow.