Saigon Day 1

For our first full day in Saigon (I'll switch between saying Ho Chi Minh and Saigon depending on who I've talked to that day). Started earlier for me and I went and had breakfast, they serve fruit as well as a choice of 'hot' breakfast options, all with a medium sized baguette. I just had the bread and peanut butter today along with some tea, the bread was nice and tasted fresh and crusty on top. The one good thing the French left behind in Vietnam was their baking skills, no one complains about that.

We then headed out to the War Remnants museum, Nicola had been there before so she waited while I wandered around. There were recovered US planes and tanks around the outside, I hadn't realised how big some of them were or how much ordinance they could carry. The museum it's self is very anti-US but with good reason, the Vietnamese essentially won the war and as such they get to write the history. The section on war journalists reminded me of a book I have that's set during the war and follows the daughters of a war photographer as they live in Vietnam, I think in Saigon. It's called white ghost girls, by Alice Greenway. 

We then walked to KOTO for lunch, KOTO is an organisation that takes disadvantaged and homeless youth and trains them in hospitality and English. It allows them to find a career with an internationally recognised qualification, one of the men had been given a placement in a Hoi Ann resort. The atmosphere was lovely and the food was very good. 

I headed back to the hotel as I needed a nap, the heat was getting to me a bit, Nicola wandered for a bit and then returned as well. 

We headed out to Ngoc's home and helped her prepare dinner, we shredded a cooked chicken (head and feet still attached) mixed it with some shredded cabbage and a sauce of fish sauce, pepper and sugar (?) and had that along with some fried Tet cake. Tet cakes are mostly sticky rice and these ones have a mix of pork, red bean and dates in the middle; they then boil them and Ngoc prefers to then pan fry them, it does change the taste a little bit but it's tasty either way.

Afterwards we ate some huge mandarins and headed out to the flower garden. It's in a local park with planted displays for the new year along with loads of larger bonsai and precious stone displays. There was a stage with some performers but we didn't stay long as it was quite loud. There were plenty of people around and lots of kids getting onto rides in very nice red clothing. We then headed back to the hotel and freshened up, it's been fairly warm here, high 20's to low 30's centigrade. Tomorrow we head to the Chu Chi tunnels for some exploring