Saigon Day 1

We prefer to walk everywhere if we can in a city, and we did miles in Saigon. We were staying in District 1 which is the central part by the river and where most of the sights are.  But you really had to pace yourself because of the heat. By 10 in the morning it had already reached 30 degrees.

What I like here is that the city is full of little parks and not so little parks everywhere, and that you can wander into the shade and cool down a little.  We walked through one of the larger ones to get to the Reunification Palace.

This was originally the presidential palace,   built in the sixties just before the war, and thankfully not destroyed.  It is now a living museum and has been kept in its original state.   The architecture is wonderful, open and airy, and must have made a lovely spacious place to live in and welcome guests.

On the roof the original helicopter that blue the gates apart to let the revolutionary guards in.

On the way back we went intoBen Thanh market, but it was very hot, crowded and full of tourist tat.  But we did walk through to the back where the food stalls were and Rod had a Vietnamese baguette filled with BBQ pork and I had an interesting pancake made of a CE flour. It came with salad leaves. You tear off some pancake and wrap it in the salad leaves, dip into the sauce and eat. Of course I got it everywhere.

Then walking through the food part around the back of the market I saw my first rat. In fact there were two of them and it was obviously a good place to live as the were huge. We walked away quickly.

Two other places worth a visit arethe the old post offic and the central Administration building.

Tonight we just had a quick meal in a fast food type place. But as always it was lovely and we tried out a few different foods, not sure what some of it was but it was delicious.

And the obligatory walk down walking street as far as the bitexco tower and the promenade.  Full of giggling children and teenagers strutting their stuff and pretending not too.