Just a day of walking around my part of Ho Chi Minh City. I’m not sure what district I’m in but it’s not the main tourist area – District 1.
Breakfast is a baguette on the street and a coffee in a cafe. The coffee culture easily rivals our love of coffee in Australia. There are coffee shops everywhere. But they don’t serve food! I don’t know why. And the food places don’t serve coffee!
First thing is to visit an old Buddhist temple Chua Ngoc Hoang. It’s a place of worship for the locals. I notice a young girl there obviously not a local. Walking to my next destination, Saigon zoo, I come across her again waiting to cross a busy street. We take the challenge together. She’s going to the museum, advice she got from her lonely planet guide. Jasmin’s from Germany. She’s studying economics at uni there but is travelling with two friends through Vietnam on a break. She’s been to Indonesia before so is a bit familiar with Asia. Her friends are doing something else today.
The museum sounds like a better idea so we do the museum together and coffee afterwards. Then we go our separate ways. I go to lunch with a friend who helps me get a local SIM card. I now have a Vietnamese number. The walk home is about 2km.
I rest then head out again in the afternoon with my trusty camera. There is a river canal not far and a great opportunity for some photos. Beers and dinner is at a street-side restaurant. The menu is all in Vietnamese! I try to use my translater app but it struggles. An item I type in comes up “the ball is dead”! Anyway it was bloody tasty.
It’s possible to have your table right on the street edge, which strangely I like. It’s busy and noisey. But it’s not legal. If word gets out that the police are on the prowl, the restaurant proprietor organised for all tables on the footpath to be moved inside…temporarily! Hilarious.
angusmccoll 