Monday, November 6
Today started at 6:45 am with a rickshaw ride to a local park to watch people exercise. They danced mainly, but I did see some woman rolling around on the ground. Not sure what she was doing. We then walked to a coffee shop to have iced Vietnamese coffee. I thought it was really good. They put condensed milk in very strong coffee and you can have it hot or cold. Then back on the rickshaws to a hidden bunker. It was very small and under the ground, hidden by floor tile. Then back on the rickshaws again to have some pho, which was very tasty! After lunch we headed back to the hotel. The rickshaw ride was very interesting as you are in the middle of morning traffic which is really crazy zipping and zooming around you. I am not sure how there are not more accidents.
For lunch, we went to a restaurant called P’Ti Saigon. We started by learning to make a local pancake. It was so hot and then we had to make that course which made it hotter. The next course was a mushroom soup. Then sea bass. It was good, but I think I was just too hot out to fully appreciate it. We ended with a chocolate cake and then ice cream which was good.
Next was the Saigon Central post office which was built in the late 1880’s and is basically a tourist shop now. There are two painted maps that were created just after the post office was built, the first one is a map of Southern Vietnam and Cambodia. The second map is of greater Saigon. They do still use both names for the city, Saigon and Ho Chi Minh. Then we went to the Reunification Palace which was the home and work place of the president of South Vietnam. The first president started it in 1962, but was assassinated before it was completed. So it was the second president and his family that lived there. There was also a bunker in the basement. Again it was so hot, but it started to rain so that helped cool it down a bit. Last stop was at Cao Dai temple which celebrates Vietnam’s home-grown religion of Cao Daism. There are separate stairs for men and women to go up to the 2nd-and 3rd floors. We spent most of our time on the 3rd floor where the prayer rooms are. Statues of Jesus Christ, Buddha and the Hindu god Brahma stand peacefully side by side. The most common motif in the temple, the eye, is encompassed by a triangle, like that found on a US dollar bill. After the temple it was back to the hotel before dinner. While not as fancy as lunch, dinner was still really good.
Photos
Additional photos coming