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Published: December 14th 2011
Another weekend and another trip into Ho Chi Minh City! This time we decided to stay at the
Victory Hotel but it was nowhere near as good as we had expected. The value for money is definitely in the backpacker area so that's probably where we will head to next time.
On Friday night we met up with an old friend. Russ had lived with David years ago in Bolivia. It was quite a surprise to find that he is now teaching at an International School in Saigon. We went to a good pub called the Black Cat where they serve an enormous burger. It normally takes 3 or 4 people to eat one portion. Nooooooooo! We didn't try. We just had 2 ordinary burgers which were tasty!!
On Saturday we went to the zoo! On the way we called in to the Ho Chi Minh Campaign museum, or rather its garden. The museum appeared to be closed for a wedding so we took a few snaps of the war remnants, the momument and the mural before moving on.
At the entrance to the zoo is the Museum of Vietnamese History. We went in hoping to catch a water puppetry
show in there. Unfortunately a large German tour group were having a private show so we were out of luck. We wandered around looking at the pots, rocks and artefacts. Some displays were interesting, especially the gory mummy, but with no information in English it wasn't the most fulfilling experience in the world. It's very cheap to go in so it's worth a look around. Opposite the museum is a temple which was nice enough but not the grandest one we've ever been in.
Next up was the zoo. Loud music was blaring out and a tent-like structure had been erected. On a stage a guy was getting little volunteers to go up and give some dogs a mathematical puzzle. To the amazement of the watching kids, the dogs could bark 7 times if they wrote "3+4=?" on a chalk board. Magic???
Our tour of the animal enclosures was a mixed bag. The giraffes seemed happy enough but there wasn't a lot of greenery for them. Trish ended up giving a free English class while Russ took some photos! Then we saw the reptiles. The lizards were good but their tanks, and those of the snakes, left a
lot to be desired. The otters were cool but it was disturbing to see them on their hind legs begging for food. The monkeys didn't want to be seen and we had to look hard to find them. Then we found the elephants. That was the saddest part of the day as they really did look to be in distress. The bird cages were not too pleasant either, and there Trish was interviewed by some students about her thoughts on the zoo!!
Later that day we went to a nice restaurant where Trish had fresh fish. The waiter had to go and fish it out of the tank! Sadly Russ couldn't get the dish he wanted so he ordered the goat. A plate-load of fat arrived instead! It turned out that he was given goat's udder, and not the meat as promised on the menu. needless to say, no tip was left!! After that we headed to the backpacker area to meet up with some of our colleagues. It turned into an interesting night with a few beers being sunk. We also got a glimpse of the lunar eclipse. Quite late on we all jumped into some taxis to
find another bar which had been recommended. We had to duck down to get through the tiny door. Inside it was quite a posh bar, with VERY POSH prices to match - a beer was £4 which is OUTRAGEOUS by Saigon standards. Bah humbug!!!!!!
On Sunday we walked out to a sculpture park we had seen from a taxi once. It was hard to see the statues as a Scout camp was in full swing. The Scouts are much more traditional here with Baden Powell hats and wooden staves! A bit further on we walked past an intricately decorated Hindu temple. We obviously picked up some bad karma as we then had a disaster at the barbers! Russ won't need a haircut again for some time!!!!!!
Our final social engagement was thanks to this website, Travelblog. A fellow blogger, Nick, had been in touch and we thought it would be nice to meet up. We had a great chat and look forward to meeting up again in the New Year. Thanks Nick!! The bad karma then stayed with us as we struggled to get a taxi back to Binh Duong without arguments. Oh well!!!
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Sophie
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It’s a really great site you have here. Thank you for the effort to be so good for us (even though we don't deserve it) and keep it up. Horoscope 2012