Ho Chi Minh City - Day 2

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We decided to get an earlier start today so that, hopefully, it wouldn’t be quite so hot and humid as we walked to our first sightseeing stop?? We hit the dining room for breakfast about 7.45am and we were out of the front door of the hotel before 9.00am.

We were exploring on foot again today. Yesterday we saw the Hop On Hop Off bus so we looked into that on the internet yesterday afternoon. Hmmn, it turns out that it’s a bit of a misnomer because you can’t actually hop on and off the bus! You board the bus at the Opera House, you complete a 45 minute loop of the city’s main points of interest and then you hop off the when you return to the Opera House. There was also a long list of things not allowed on the bus. OK, strollers and large pieces of luggage I understand BUT the list also included: no cameras, no sunglasses and no cell phones. With exclusions like that we thought no way!

Our first destination this morning was the History Museum. The museum is housed in a Chinese style building that was built between 1926 and 1929. Constructed around a beautiful inner courtyard the complex houses a collection of around 17,000 artifacts. The collection is really well laid out and has plenty of interpretative information for English-speaking visitors. In addition to a really well-curated collection the museum boasted very clean western-style facilities that we used before heading off to our next stop for the morning.

We turned right at the front of the museum and made our way along Nguyen Binh Khiem. Phew, our route took us along a couple of Ho Chi Minh’s larger thoroughfares so it was a bit challenging making our way across some of the streets. At least these days most of the traffic actually stops for the red lights which does give pedestrians a fighting chance. However, you still have to be wary of the motorcyclists who don’t believe traffic lights are for them AND the traffic that is making a right turn from the intersecting road!!!

The scariest part was the HUGE roundabout at the intersection of Nguyen Binh Khiem and Dien Bien Phu. Although there was a pedestrian crossing near the roundabout we erred on the side of caution and walked down to the next traffic light controlled intersection to make our was across Dien Bien Phu. This meant that we went a bit out of our way before we reached the Jade Emperor Pagoda but, hey, we made it in one piece!

The temple was built in 1909 to honour the supreme Taoist god the Jade Emperor or King of Heaven, Ngoc Hoang. With the smoke of incense hanging in the air, the temple is certainly atmospheric. It is the first place that we have visited that is still enforcing a strict mask rule for visitors. The temple is filled with beautiful wood carvings and characters from both Buddhist and Taoist lore made from reinforced papier-mâché. The temple is very much a working temple and I certainly felt a bit clumsy making my was around with a camera while trying to be mindful of the locals coming into the temple to make offerings and worship their gods.

When we exited the temple there was an enterprising taxi driver touting for our business in his very small sedan. We had already decided that we would walk back to the hotel so we declined his offer. Whether or not all four of us would have actually fitted in such a compact car remains a mystery!! Based on past experience we were also dubious about whether, once he had us in his car, he would have wanted to take us to his cousin’s silk shop or his uncle’s jade shop?!

When we arrived back at the M Plaza (underneath the Intercontinental Hotel) we were dripping with sweat and keen for a cooling beverage. We ate at another one of the restaurants in the food court today. It was certainly lovely to sit down in air conditioned comfort and order cold drinks. My first food choice was not available so I quickly selected another option from the same section of the menu thinking it would be similar. A mistake as it turned out. Instead of a meal of stir-fried flat rice noodles with beef I ended up with a salad of cold rice vermicelli noodles topped with lettuce and bean shoots and a few pieces of BBQ chicken. I ate the chicken! I ‘probably’ could have eaten the cold part as well, but didn’t want to chance it??!

On our way back into the hotel we stopped at the concierge’s desk to book our day trip to Black Virgin Mount and the Cao Dai Holy Mass for tomorrow. Before coming to Vietnam we knew that there was a tour combining the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple, but none of us wanted to go in the tunnels as we have heard they are very claustrophobic. When we picked up a brochure here and discovered we could take an option that combines a cable car ride to the highest peak in South Vietnam with a visit to the temple we decided that sounded like a much better idea. Now we just have to cross our fingers that we will actually have a panoramic view from the peak of Black Virgin Mount when we are there tomorrow???

I have to note that as I am writing this there is a window cleaner hanging outside the window. We arrived back after lunch to a note on our desk saying that we may periodically experience window cleaners outside our windows between 9.00 and 17.00 hours. Luckily we have our clothes on!!

After cooling down for an hour or so in our room we headed out again into the humidity with a mind to walk to the Saigon River. It was an easy walk until we reached Cong Truong Me Linh which arches around the statue of Truong Tran Hung Dao. Once we negotiated our way across we were in a garden oasis surrounding the statue of legendary 13^th-century military leader, Truon Tran Hung Dao.

Then we had just one more road crossing to make before we were by the river, after which we had to try to find a vantage point to take a photo of the spectacular bridge that carries Cau Thu Thiem 2 across the river. There were lots of fabulous old buildings along the river in particular the Hotel Majestic Saigon.

Heading away from the river we walked along Pho di bo Nguyen Hue described as a ‘pedestrian boulevard for evening strolls’. In the middle of the afternoon it was not very busy and such a relief to find an area dedicated to people on foot where we didn’t have to worry about negotiating the relentless traffic!! The boulevard features a lovely fountain (Bung Binh Cay Lieu) which we photographed before taking a small diversion to photograph the Ho Chi Minh City Opera House. We completed our promenade just behind the statue of Ho Chi Minh where the boulevard terminates at the building that houses the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, basically the equivalent of city hall.

With the humidity increasing again we wandered back to the hotel. The forecast thunderstorms had not arrived this afternoon so we headed poolside to cool off. We met a wine maker from McLaren Vale down at the pool. He is on a work trip catching up with people who stock their wines in SE Asia for the first time since the pandemic.

We freshened up after our swim before sampling the Italian restaurant (Basilico) at the hotel and then heading out to try some night photography. We returned to Saigon Central Post Office, the People’s Committee Building and the Opera House to photograph them while they are illuminated overnight.

If Pho di bo Nguyen Hue was quiet during the day it was absolutely heaving at nighttime! The boulevard was full of people and the road around it was filled with traffic. We were commenting earlier today that we had not seen many children on motorbikes. That must be because it’s a family ‘thing’ to ride laps around Pho di bo Nguyen Hue in the evening. It freaks me out to see the whole family on a motorbike with Mum and Dad wearing helmets and two kids along for the ride sans head protection!

You know how I recorded earlier that the Hop On Hop Off bus starts its route at the Opera House? Well, in the evenings it seems that the whole fleet is parked there. So, the Opera House is illuminated BUT there are all these great, big, fat red buses right in front of it!!! We had to position ourselves over to the side of the Opera House to be able to take a picture of the façade without red buses in it.



Steps for the day: 20,381 (13.39km)

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Comments

[Caroline Brunner]

Day 2.
I am also peeved/frustrated when I cannot get that 'perfect photo' because there are trucks/buses/rubbish bins blocking that 'view I want so badly' !!! I often complain out loud "How dare they ' !!!!!