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Published: January 6th 2013
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The lonely planet book that we've got reccomends a walking tour round d the city to see some of the highlights, so we Head off to take in the sights we haven't seen yet within the District 1 area.
Firstly heading over to the peoples committee building, the former city hall, this beautiful building is noticible for its ornate renaissance-inspired façade and apparently one of the most photographed building in Vietnam. We are taking pictures from the park opposite which holds the statue of Ho Chi Minh himself. I. The opposite direction the is a very tall green glass sky scraper, I'm not sure of the name of this but at night time we have seen this from where we are staying, the light show that come from it is incredible. Its like an 80's stereo system that has the lights that change depending on how the music goes, this shown the full height of the building and when sat in a bar looks like its also going to the beat.
From here we head round the corner and up the street habit to the Notre Dame Cathedral, in front stands a statue of St Mary holding what looks
View from HCM statue
The building on the left is the one that lights up like an 80's stereo at night, the tall one at the back is the Bitexco Financial Tower. liked a bowling ball!?? The Cathedral is very oddly positioned almost on a round about.
To the right of the Cathedral is the central post office.
Carrying on past the cathedral we head up to a very disappointing turtle lake, well I'm not sure any living plant could survive here let alone turtles, its pretty dirty there is flower like sculpture in the middle but not worth the visit.
We head back the way we came and go the Centec Tower to the 23rd floor where they have a bar called Shri and an outside balcony with a brilliant view. This is the only tower we've heard of that doesn't charge to go up, we bought a drink but still cheaper than the Bitexco Financial Tower which can be seen in most of the picture. Its an almost sail shaped building (apparently the shape is inspired by a lotus bulb). We've heard that the views are pretty awesome from the buildings sky deck and they have information on the local history but we decided for $10 each we'd settle for the Centec!
Lunch time, another great discovery, a place close to the Catherdral called Nha Hang
Ngon. It looked like a slightly more upmarket restaurant with outside seating situated between trees. When we went in we noticed the food stalls around the edge all cooking, upon closer inspection each lady at these stands are cooking something different, out can go round and order from what you see or order from the menu. We ordered from the menu to be on the safe side but the food was delicious, tastiest Vietnamese food so far.
Keep forgetting its New Years eve tonight, as we went planning on being in Ho Chi Minh city tonight we are about unstuck as what to do, but we did have an invite to have dinner at the hostel with the other residents so lovely and great way to get to talk to other travellers. Bonus the food is delicious.
After our food we decide to brave the streets and head to the park on the street behind the hostel with a Canadian couple we have met, Marie and George. The park has been set up for something since we've been here so we go to inspect.... Blimey we could not have been prepared for what we met, the traffic which
is mental anyway was at a stand still everywhere, the park was packed and the streets lined with mopeds abandoned or with occupants sitting on them waiting for something ....
We headed back as the crowds got worse thinking of trying to get somewhere habit closer to home, there were rumours of there being fireworks over the river but that was at least a 30 walk on a good day today would almost impossible. Luckily we get back and the manager at the hostel 'po' says we can join her on the roof top to watch the fireworks.
Think we got the best seat in the house, although they were far away, it was a brilliant few with all the buildings I mentioned earlier making a panoramic view. The fire works were spectacular and went on forms good half an hour, in the streets below we could hear the cheering and the babbling it was a brilliant new years evening .
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