Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
13th March 2014
Today we berthed at Phu My, which is a
container port an hour and a half drive from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Geoffrey was full of trepidation as the
excursion today was entitled HO CHI MINH CITY SHOPPING EXPERIENCE. However, it was an interesting drive into the
city centre, passing men and women working in the paddy fields, the beautiful
lotus in many ponds, along with the hundred of ducks, being bred for their eggs
in the first year and then duck a l’orange in their second and final year.
We were both impressed on how modern the
city was, not what we were expecting at all.
Our first stop was a comfort stop at the Rex Hotel and shopping mall,
where we also had our first experience of crossing the road, without getting
knocked down by the many thousands of scooters.
The technique was to walk SLOWLY in a straight line and let the traffic
drive around you – quite an experience.
Our escort pointed out this building, which
was the American CIA building during the
Vietnam war, where the famous photograph was taken of the last
helicopter evacuating Saigon.
After a visit to a lacquer factory, where
we saw local craftsmen making their wares, we visited the iconic Post Office
building, where we again encountered crossing the road with the many thousands
of scooters (an cars).
We were then taken to a local market called
Ben Thanh Central Market, where the locals did their shopping. This was a huge building full of thousands of
small outlets selling everything from Rolex watches, fabrics, clothes, shoes,
dried fish, wet fish etc. etc., with every stall owner grabbing your arm as you
walked past trying to entice you to buy
After 45 minutes, Geoffrey had had enough and we left the market and had
a cold beer for Geoffrey and an iced coconut drink for Doreen.
We were then taken to the upmarket Dong
Khoi Street area, where we had three ours to do our own thing. We decided to have a quick lunch and called
into a restaurant called The Vietnamese House.
Not sure what to order we decided on one of the fixed menu options. Some two hours later we completed our eight course
banquet.
After an hour looking around the local
shops we found our coach and drove back to the port. Fascinated by the scooters some carrying
mountains of produce, and others carrying whole families, including a family of
four on this scooter.
1 comment:
Ben thanh (if it's the one I'm thinking of) was pretty intense from what I can remember! I'm surprised you survived for half an hour!! Did you buy anything? Also, did you see a restaurant outside called pho 2000 - where Bill Clinton went for his pho ba.
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