Angkor Wat, Cambodia

I left off the travelogue at the end of the cruise at which point we had a post cruise tour of the Angkor Wat Temples. It was a long and grueling day when we disembarked early and took a 5 hour coach to Siem Reap. Upon arrival at the gorgeous Victoria Angkor Resort (1st 3 photos) we checked in, had a super quick lunch and immediately went to tour the first set of temples. Picture 4 upper right is a sunset shot of the famous ones with the faces. It was so beautiful that it did make me forget the exhaustion, high heat and humidity for a little while at least.
This famous and enormous complex of temples is our second World Heritage Site of the trip and rightly so as I will say the two, Halong Bay and Angkor Wat are absolutely stunning and the highlights of the trip.

If you are interested the paragraph below is swiped from Wikipedia about the temples.
Thanks for your concern (after the Malaysian air flight on the news) and we will continue our travels as safely as possible.
D

Angkor Wat was first a Hindu, then subsequently a Buddhist, temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. The temple was built by the Khmer KingSuryavarman II in the early 12th century inYasodharapura (Khmer: present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from theShaivism tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

Post Cruise update Charity in a small way to help in a big way for these two I hope...

Thanks everyone for helping make this happen.

I just got this from Phaly our guide:

This is the photo of the two girls who been drop off from sponsoring but , they are very lucky that you did a wonderful job helped to collect the contribution from you and other generous people on your cruise help to keep carry on to give them a sponsorship .

On behalf of Chhunny , Chorany , their families and on my behalf , thank you so much for your contribution help to keep carry on to give the two girls a school sponsorship which, we are very grateful for .

Very best regards & thanks ,

Phaly , Chhunny & Chorany

End of Cruise

Typical sunset over the Mekong
View from the top of the hill
Joe and Katie's group
Looking down at the 303 stairs to get back down the hill
Monkey&baby
Yes that little dot at the front of the oxcart line is Kim jogging back to the boat. ..good call as the cart was dusty and bumpy
'Hey Kim, let me get a photo of you running down the steps'...'Aw, you made me lose count'
Hilltop temple
Ornate stupa
Final night crew show and farewell crew and passenger dance party on deck.
Caught others in our group dancing and yes we tore it up lindy/charleston/balboa swing style
Random last eco village house pic

The next morning we disembarked in Kampang Chang for our 4+ hour bus ride to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat temples.

Shore excursions2

It was not as lazy a cruise as I normally like, so much to do!
(Grace you'd be ashamed of my behavior...possibly only one 10 minute nap the whole week!)

Pics:
1.While in Cambodia's Capital, Phnom Phen, most went to the genocide musem and the Killing Fields. A few of us chose cooking school and learned to make a traditional Cambodian curry and seafood salad.

2.In our oxcart (with our boat in the background) for the ride to yet another Wat/Monastery
3.Our working Oxen
4. Our guide Pauily organizes and sponsors 50+ kids from this village (near her home town) to learn English.
Sailua ran along with us in the hopes of practicing her English and for a handout of money. She does have a sponsor for classes but according to our guide they also have to have the money for uniforms or cannot attend these classes. Teachers here are paid the least amount of money possible to the point that they have to charge their students just to make enough money to get by. I'm sure this contributes in a small way to Cambodia's rating as the most corrupt country in Asia and 3rd in the world.
I found out what sponsorship costs and took up a collection from our 12 person group and others from the cruise. Kim and I donated and I managed to gather enough to sponsor a child for a year with uniforms, books and lunches and even a little bit over that I told Pauily to use for uniforms for other kids.
5. Traditional Khmer dancing (reminded me of Thai dancing but I have since learned that this entire region was once part of the Khmer Empire so that's where it all came from originally)
6. The fancy boats used to celebrate the annual water festival in April.
7. Large Stupa (where ancestors ashes are buried)
8. Typical view of Cambodia throughout our week. ..very flat...lots of rice fields!
9. That evening in the Capital Phnom Penh, Nelson and Kim posing in front of the Bunny Bar to impress David...it would have worked better if they hadn't looked so scared of the scantily clad 'bar girls'
10. In the Wat/Monastery that the oxen took us to.
During our touring we had numerous lectures about the Buddhist vs Hindu religions because many of the places we visited were converted from one to the other and then back depending on what war was going on, leaving some trace of both many times...so a Buddhist wat or pagoda but with Kinaree on the outside or a statue of Vishnu or Brahma or Shiva as well.
11. One of the original pre Angkorian Stupas from around the year 900 that managed to survive the wars and destruction by the Khmer Rouge.
12. A typical house in this region. Most are built up on stilts because of flooding during the monsoon season and now with China damming the Mekong upstream more than half of this flat country floods if China opens the dam gates.
13. This Wat/Monastery was built higher to avoid floods
14. Joe and Kim pose for me
15. Many of them are very colorfully painted inside
16. David has an admirer who not only snuggled against him but followed us through town for quite a while..and we all hoped he put those trousers in the laundry after :)

Excursion photos

Pics:
Floating Market
Their take on rice krispy treats..yum.. using coconut syrup..why yes, I had samples!
Selfies on the small excursion boat (have to entertain ourselves as this guide was awful...a strain to understand, speaks forever without ever saying much or finishing a sentence. ..exhausting to listen to)
Typical house for this area
Huge brick kilns for firing clay tiles &bricks
Dried shrimp, a little bit different than what I sell back home...same price though!
Cool blue armed prawns
Floating produce market
Cham village weaving demonstration
Kim Cyclo riding through Phnom Penh
At the Royal Palace (yes they have a king and are an elected monarchy)
Gorgeous grounds/gardens
Extremely ornate inside and out
Joe and Katie in front of a fantastic mural
Even though he wasn't supposed to, John my cyclo driver, let me have a go!

Mekong Pandaw Cruise Saigon to Siem Reap

Last week was the luxurious segment of our journey. We were aboard the Mekong Pandaw cruising from Vietnam just outside Ho Chi Minh/Saigon into Cambodia to Kamphong Cham, where we head to Angkor Wat. Delightful ship, great crew, delicious food and a really nice group of passengers. we made friends with two couples from Belgium and one lovely couple from Berlin, Germany.

I have always loved Cruises as a form of vacation and transportation together. I have also been sad that I was born too late to enjoy the heyday of the gorgeous ocean liners. I felt like this small wooden ship with it's luxurious deck, dining room and the downstairs spa, movie room, fitness room and library gave me a little taste of what it used to be like. There were only 47 passengers and 27 crew.

Every day there were one to two excursions to various Temples, Wats, Pagodas, Villages, Floating towns, Floating Markets, fish farms. Kim went to the Killing Fields and genocide musem. That day I opted for cooking class and foot massages-yes I wussed out. But, I had a much more relaxed and uplifting day than the others.

Pics1:
Ship, cabin, on deck, kim goofing with the traditional dancers and the sunset bar with it's unlimited free drinks and bottomless cookie jar.

HoChiMinh/Saigon City tour before Cruise

Trying to catch up before we are in the no man's land of the Mekong river.

Bus Coach tours are not really my style but that's what we had booked for the day with the group. And it did allow us to see several sites that Kim and I wouldn't otherwise have made it to. I will say the bus having air conditioning was nice as we are much further south and getting high 80's to 90's temperature wise.
An hour and a half outside Saigon we went to the Co Chi Tunnels used very effectively in the war by the Viet Cong. Pics 1, 2&3. It is all a strange mix of creepy, morbid, depressing and cheerful, gun shooting, crawl around the widened and cleaned ('for your size') tunnels along with amusement park-esque animatronic statues.

Back in town we had a great lunch and then went to the Reunification Palace for a quick tour of the highlights. Pic 4. Kim and I were grateful that we had done it before in more detail. Then off to the war remnants museum...pics 5&6...much heavy propoganda and anti american sentiments with a heavy dose of guilt poured over the top.

Sarah, pic#7 is for you. ..I know it's not alcoholic or with an umbrella on the beach but it was the most delicious watermelon juice and I thought of you when I had Kim snap the shot.
#8 cannot begin to give you a feel for the sheer quantity of scooters and traffic insanity that reigns in the biggest city in Vietnam.
Matt we did see 5 on a single one! Granted one was a baby but the bar is raised and we will have to keep a lookout now for 6 people riding one scooter!
9 is just more yummy food to torture Ms Megan ;-) calamari salad and spring rolls with a fresh coconut water.

The second set is of the Notre-Dame Cathedral built by the French (the two pics on the left) right down the street from the Reunification Palace. And just across from that the Post Office! The three shots on the right are the floor, interior and exterior of the main post office also built by the French from 1886-1891. By far the loveliest thing I'd seen all day...week...etc (The reunification/presidential palace from earlier in the day was torn down and completely rebuilt in late 60's early 70's and it shows those years style dramatically)

Our group went out for dinner and it was delicious again. Ru Pho Bar was a winner...I will say if you'd like to try food extremely similar to what i had go eat at one of our favorites in town: Star Ginger on Folsom and Alhambra and have the lemongrass porkchops or go to KT Noodle in Rocklin and have a 53 bun noodle salad. They are spot on.

Back in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon

Well I've now been corrected. ..turns out only people outside Saigon want to call it Ho Chi Minh City but people in Saigon consider it the only name and they are Saigonese.
We arrived via Veitnam airlines from Danang and checked in to the fanciest hotel I've stayed in for a long time. This one is the beginning of the set tour Joe and Katie invited us to join them on. The first shot is Kim and I by the pool on the 21st floor of the Renaissance Riverside and the other pics are from up there looking out and down at the city. Oh yeah and my view on our bus tour the next day.

Once we checked in we met the group of Joe and Katie's friends that we'd be traveling with for the next 10 days and went out to dinner.

Food Interlude2, HoiAn Beach and Lazy touristing!

We've decided that we are the lazy tourists! We lounge over breakfast and manage to make it out of the hotel at 10:30! Caught the free shuttle to the beach and other than a few walks, napped and read until getting picked up again at 4. I guess we all needed a break from the constant sites, museums, tailor shop barkers and market frenzy.
Now off to Danang for our flight back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Foodcentric photos:
1: Kim being overfed by all the servers at Bale Well restaurant. Amazingly good cheap place that's been going for 22 years.
I guess it's all you can eat because we went two nights in a row and could barely move after! Set price 105,000vnd (5 $pp) and they bring you a table full of food!
2: Biz card with all the food they bring listed, not counting the fresh pineapple, chocolate dixie cup of richness or the lovely mango stuff in a cup (pure mango in a custardy texture)
3: Kim and Joe enjoying our first Bahn Mi of the trip (ended up ordering 2 each although I couldn't finish the second) Amazingly good!
4. The massive food spread at Bale Well.
5. Two Hoi An only specialties Cao Lao noodles and the 'white lotus' steamed dumplings
6. Where they make the sandwiches
7. Joe getting goofy with Bale Well staff
8. Hanging out at the beach
9.a whole green onion, pickled cucumber, herbs, bbq meat, and the best spicy salsa like stuff on top.All on a better baguette than I have had since France!

Days 9-12 HoiAn Vietnam

Meeting up with Joe and Katie in Hoi An seemed to be a good idea. Lots of sights, historical buildings, pagodas, museums etc. Of course it is also possible that this is the most touristy spot in the entire country.

I think of Hoi An as the Bruges of Vietnam. Water channel moved,so the town got forgotten and ignored in wars so preserved architecture and temples etc. Rediscovered for tourism in the 70's and really boomed since the early 90's.
Very hip place chock full of restaurants catering to the multitude of anglo tourists. Every other shop seems to be tailors mixed in with shoes (we can make your size!) or lanterns and gifts. Many historical buildings and sites to see scattered throughout.
Taking it easy for a few days and mostly meandering about town and eating well.

Pics:
1.dragon fountain in one of the temples
2.a very old ornate wood house preserved for many years
3. Joe, Katie, Kim&I on the lantern, gift shop, tailor filled streets of the town
4. Temple
5. Covered Japanese bridge at night

Day 8 Last day in HaNoi

After crossing off just about the entire 'top ten things to do in Hanoi' yesterday we were left with the Ethnology museum and the recommended spa day. Thank you so much David for the suggestion and directions!
Walked for 2 hours to get to the museum and my blisters determined that a taxi back was reasonable. The museum was great and we lucked out that it was a festival day. More dancing, games, crafts, water puppets and cultural information than anticipated.
Lovely lunch back at 'delicious' and then a 20ish minute walk to the 'Huong Sen Wellness Center' a bit different than 'Colfax Healing Arts' or 'the Body Mind Center' that I work at back home! 1st a soak in a barrel that seemed to have hot water and tea in it, then a jacuzzi tub soak, on to the steam room then a great massage which mixed elements of thai stretching, oil massage, facial and walking all over me! At the end you go downstairs and they give you awful tea, a yummy bowl of soup (juk with herbs) and some fresh fruit. I am going to sleep well tonight. Oh and it was on New Years Special 200,000 vnd per person ($10!)
It was very hard to drag my senses back to reality to 'Hanoi Shuffle' through the insane traffic on the return to our hotel. Kim even had to remind me not to speed up when I was tempted to dash across the street.
Pics:
1. Making cone hats the traditional way
2. The museum front
3. Awesome backpack!
4 . a performance by the front steps of the museum
5.one of the many lifesized example houses on the museum grounds showing how different people live
6. Cool water tower in the middle of a roundabout
7. My new favorite day spa! I'm so blissed out but a little bit bummed we didn't discover this until the last day!

Day 7 Hanoi Take2 in the Afternoon

After lunch I picked up a pair of sunglasses in a shop. 220,000vnd! Oh wait that's only 11$ which is great since I'd lost my moderately cheap ebay raybans in Halong Bay off the boat.
Right after buying them, ran into one of the couples from the boat trip and they told us to go try egg coffee...or egg hot cocoa...OMG my new favorite thing!
Afternoon pics:
1.The Opera House
2. Newlyweds crossing the crazy roundabout street in front of the Opera House
3. Cafe Giang (great name huh L&T?)
4. Upstairs in the cafe, that you have to know about since it's just a narrow doorway and you go all the way back!
5. Egg coffee and Egg hot cocoa FTW! And I thought Kim has had every variable on coffee and here's a new one better than the rest!
6. Water Puppet Theater across from the lake (right near the turtle island) do notice the puppets in the glass above-they move every hour when the music starts to announce the next show.
7. Puppet show and live singers/musicians
8. The puppeteers wade out at the end to take their bows

We shared an ice cream cone on the way back to the hotel and decided to skip dinner in favor of footrubs...much needed at this point!

Ended up going for a light dinner after footrubs, shared a small crab noodle specialty soup...not going to be my new favorite but nice enough.

Day 7 HaNoi take 2

When Kim and I were here last, before we went off to Halong Bay, it was during the TET holiday. Now that is over and the city is transformed. All the closed businesses are now open, and the busy traffic we had seen is a weak pale pittance compared to the life or death game of frogger that you play with every street crossing. We are calling it the Hanoi Shuffle. ..it's a upright purposeful walk with as much ego as you can muster and you step off the curb and just walk steadily despite the insanity...only speeding up or slowing if its a cab coming at you...because,well,you know. ..cabbies the world over...

A busy day of tourist sites:
Left to right
1.A small piece of the view from the breakfast room on the 7th floor of the Aranya hotel where we are staying.
2.Ho Chi Minh Museum dedicated to the father of the communist regime here in Vietnam
3.His larger than life statue in the center if the museum
4.Temple on the grounds of the Museum/Masouleum in front of the...
5.One Pillar Pagoda (replica of the most ancient Buddhist pagoda)
6. Ho Chi Minh's Masoleum
7.Part of the oldest and first ever Vietnamese University founded by Confucious and his diciples. On left and right were many large tombstone like slabs with the oldest records and writings.
8.Inside with the statues of Confucious (yes Kim is fully a head taller than everyone....pretty normal here)
9. Stopped for Bun Cha lunch...yum!
10. Herbs and lettuce, bun noodles, dipping sauce with bbq bacon and sausage and spring rolls on the side!

And that's only half the day...no wonder I have a blister on my toe!

Bai Tu Long Bay Stay on Quan Lan Island

Collage Photo key left to right
1.Early morning rainy day at the island market
2&3 riding the tuk tuk first to the beach then the harbor
4. More kayaking (thanks Jessie&Sallie for the introduction...I'd have been terrified if not for that!)
5.on the boat being goofy
6. On the beach (you have to hear Ride of the Valkiries and Robert Duval yelling 'Charlie Don't Surf!' in your head to fully join our sick sense of humor. And if you don't, then just realize Apocalypse Now has always been one of Kim's top 3 favorite movies of all time) The actual beach scene from the movie was filmed in the Philippines but we used our imagination.
7.More lovely misty mountains rising from the bay...the constant pretty view for the last two days.
8.Yummy lunch on the boat. Fish and fried peanuts.
9.Oyster farm (I'd never seen or knew about before)
10. They spit at you if you take them out of the water
11. Back at harbor waiting for our ride back to HaNoi.
Next set:
The boat that took us out to the island
The bike ride to the homestay village
One of the many ornate cemetery hillsides
A temple along the way

3day2night Ethnic tour is over. Now back to being on our own for a few days.

Just so you don't think that we are having gourmet every meal...breakfast on the boat was white toast, a fried egg and.5 slice of barely cooked bacon. Not sure why tours like this insist on trying to feed us a western breakfast but oh well. Nice group of 10 guests on this boat, one couple from Sweden, two from France and one from New York.

Evidently we were very fortunate as the stunningly gorgeous scenery enhanced by a lovely sunny day yesterday was an anomaly for this time of year. The misty shrouds of cloud giving the islands an ethereal feel, that we woke to this morning, is more the norm for now.

Morning kayak in Halong Bay to the cave of the Virgin girl across from the cave of the Drum Boy (fable 'to make cave more interesting').

Factoids: Halong Bay (along with the adjoining Bai Tu Long Bay) has over 1969 islands. Only about 900 have names. Average water depth is 3-10 meters that's only 6-30 feet approximately!
Then a drive to our boat in BaiTuLong Bay where we met our next guide Quyet (pronounced quit) who is a sweet young man whose parents have a small farm not far from Danang. The boat (see pics) to take us to Quan Lan Island I found very interesting.

Kim and I have a strange knack for getting a tour where there are no other tourists so it is just us and we have the guide, boat and homestay to ourselves. It reminded me of our 10 day bicycle tour in Thailand years ago where we ended up with a guide and driver all to ourselves.

A short bicycle ride 10k along the mostly sand/dirt road to our 'homestay' b&b. Mr Sau and his family fed us well and have 6 rooms for guests as well as now a 20 room hotel nearby and recently opened coffee shop. We got to help roll up the spring rolls for dinner and enjoyed sweet potato fries, fried fish cakes and yummy stir fried green vegetable with garlic.
My jetlag is mellowing as I made it to 8:30pm before zonking out.

And yes Kim looks happy on deck we changed less than $100US into 2million VND and he is lounging in one of the most beautiful places on earth feeling like a millionaire!

OMG Halong Bay so Beautiful!

So without a doubt the most beautiful thing we've seen in a while! Halong Bay is rightfully one of the World Heritage sites. The pics do not do it justice at all.
Ethnic tours and travel picked us up early from the hotel and 3.5 hours later we were aboard our mini cruise ship. Oodles of seafood for lunch and dinner beautifully prepared and presented. Kayak trip through a floating fishing village and enough gorgeous scenery to keep me snapping away.

I forgot to mention Halong means Descending Dragon (legend has the dragon spitting out pearls and gems that then turn into each of the islands) Bai Tu Long means Dragon's Children

This next section is for those who haven't been to Asia and because Pam was trying to imagine the sounds and scents...

Other side of the coin: as a reality break I will mention that all we've seen has been very cool and interesting but there are foibles. Smog and pollution is thick, smoke, many cigarette smokers, crazy insane traffic with little to no rhyme or reason or even signals or signs and heavy on the honking, many scooter accidents and deaths. Unfortunately lots of trash everywhere including in the water of the beautiful Halong bay. Cities are dirty and have some of the most broken sidewalks and streets. Heavy coal production and use.

I tend to feel I'm sending the glossy version and although we enjoy ourselves and travel with positive outlook glasses on as much as possible I thought I would mention the realistic side of travel here.

Ok now back to the good stuff...

Train from Saigon to Ha Noi

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Happy New Year! We are here during the TET holiday so all is decorated with banners and flowers everywhere.

5am arrived at the train station and thanks to jetlag felt great.Decided to walk to one of the famous lakes in Hanoi called Huong Kiem lake. After a few minutes Kim's amazing sense of direction made him ask if I wanted to stop at our hotel to drop bags. We were only a block and a half away so we went there. Sweet receptionist said we were lucky and a room was available (5:30am!) so we got to change and rinse off the stink of 30 hours on the train.

A stop for coffee and fresh oj at a cafe on the way to the lake. We sat and watched some guys playing a vollyball/hackysack game with a strange birdie like object they kicked over the net. I guess it is called Jianzi has been played since the Han Dynasty and made it into the 2003 Southeast Asian Games. Kim says he wants to learn to play so we can play camping and at BBQs.

The lakes in Hanoi are a very central focal point of life in the city. This famous lake has a legend about a giant turtle who retrieved a sword from the Emperor to give back to the gods. We visited the museum/ pagoda on the island and watched the singing,dancing and many people praying and burning money as offerings for the new year.

Stopped briefly at a tour operator 'Ethnic Travel' and reserved space for a trip to Halong Bay.

After a good long walk through streets with food markets and sidewalk restaurants we ended up eating lunch at a recommended place called 'delicious' Quan An Ngon and having all the lovely traditional food. (See last post)

Back at our hotel, first I had a massage then kim got a foot rub.

I don't know if it was the long walk the massage or the jet lag but I think all three together meant no dinner for us as I crashed out hard at 5pm.

Food interlude

Ignore unless foodie, chef or otherwise food obsessed ;)

Erica-I thought these were a vietnamese pineapple bun (so thought of you) by the look but turned out it is a sweet bean paste inside and at center a cooked egg yolk.  We got from a shop to eat as we walked around the lake.
Gerald & Amy:
The upper right and lower left were amazing! They are traditional dishes. one is steamed rice roll filled with minced pork, mushroom and shrimp and served with a light dipping sauce broth a little sweet. The best part is that they dump a handful of fried garlic on it... The garlic and onion here is so mild sweet and tasty. It makes the flavors of everything here different/better...it explains why I can have the same things at home and they taste completely different from here.
The lower left dish is Banh Xeo a light crispy eggy crepe but served by taking the papery circle and making a spring roll from a piece of lettuce and mint and some other herb like mint but purple and a wedge of the big crepe that has pork and shrimp and onion and mung bean inside and rolling all together and dipping in a sweet chili sauce.

The best thing we had I forgot to take a pic of but it was called bun çha grilled pork served with rice noodles, herbs and dipping sauce. When we have it again I will try and send you a pic.

Did I mention that even the baguette on the train (and everywhere here) is second only to that found in france... sigh... someday I want to try and import the proper flour and try to make real baguette at home!

I have no idea what the strange citrus finger like fruit is but plan to try it out at some point. (called Buddah's hand and I never did get to try it)

'Love is all you need' and good food too I guess ;-)

Train From Saigon to Hanoi

13 hours down, 17 to go! 
I'm the one who has a thing for trains so I thought it'd be great to take the Reunification Train from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi.  I'd like to say that it was a really good idea but....well it's been an adventure and I did get to see the scenery.  We got very lucky in some ways.  Lower bunks and two very nice swedish boys as cabin mates.  Sebastian and Simon slept most of the trip which started at 11pm and then they departed at Hue around 5pm. About an hour out of Hue Simon says 'that wasn't very long'. I wish I was a teenager who could sleep 14 hours straight!
From 11pm-5am a sweet family with a baby joined us the rest of the way to Hanoi. They generously gave us 'happy new year' gifts of a  20,000 vnd bill and we were able to politely give the baby a dollar bill."Is tradition"she says.

Photos: our travel mates, scenery, $5 train breakfast

Day One Saigon, Vietnam

The short version...

Day 1 in Ho Chi Minh City a great success! See below pics of 1.reunification palace selfie 4.street pho at kiddie sized tables 2. a mural made only with flowers and 3. new years horse display at flower street

So my sister says we should have impersonated Robin Williams and said "Gooood Morning Vietnam" when we got up this morning. Well mentally at least. Went down to typically asian buffet breakfast...jook rice porridge, stir fry noodles, fried rice, cake, fruit, and kim was happy with the vietnamese coffee!

We walked a few blocks to the Reunification Palace (see pic) and toured it. Spent some of the siesta time sitting outside at the cafe having a cold water trying to stay cool in the hot and humid temps. Walked through the flower street which is all done up for Tet holiday (new years- the year of the horse) We'd been thinking we'd go to high tea on the 50th floor of the Bixteco financial building but it's now a gelato cafe so no food for us.

Ended up walking a bit and eating street noodle pho...yum (and $3 for 2 bowls) And yes that is a guy having a mid afternoon nap on his scooter behind me!

Tonight we board the reunification train to Hanoi...should be interesting, hopefully fun too.

Overall day one a big success!

D