Day 1 in Ho Chi Minh/Saigon

For as late as I got to bed last night I slept miserably. I finally forced my butt out of bed and all the rest of that stuff sometime after 9 AM. Went downstairs to talk to the hotel people about getting a SIM and a map and finding out where the crucial essentials could be found (breakfast and an ATM).  I also arranged a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels for tomorrow and to see the water puppet show. The tunnel tour is super cheap $5 USD, so I'm thinking there will be a few shopping stops. 

Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) Central Post office

I started off the day by hitting up the central market. I wasn't interested in purchasing anything, I more just wanted a general idea of what was for the purchasing. Honestly, a lot of it was vastly similar to stuff I had seen in Cambodia and Thailand. Now, I realize that the countries are really close to each other, but still. I'll keep my eyes open for some special stuff. I  have a number of people I want to get a token something for back in China.  Continued on to walk to a shopping street where I picked up an item I had forgotten to buy in China.  

Current city hall

 I stopped by the central post office and viewed the cathedral from outside. Being that everything in this city tends to shut down for 1.5 hours between 11 and 1:30 I was beginning to hit a wall. The midday wall.  So I headed to a local restaurant to find some food and waste some time.  I got some shrimp spring rolls, chicken pho, passion fruit juice and a mung bean and coconut dessert.

Chicken Pho

Shrimp spring rolls

From there I went to the Ho Chi Minh museum, which is one of the only museums that doesn't close during the noon time hours.  The museum was quite dated and old and dusty, but perfectly acceptable.  But I would find out through the day that this was quite typical for museums here. Lots of Vietnamese couples doing their wedding shoots. 

On to the Reunification Palace and War Remnants Museum. 

Left over plane left in Vietnam or captured

 From there it was on to the Jade Buddha Temple and the History Museum.

Then I was sore as anything, both due to the backpack I was carrying and just in general from a day of travel. So I stopped in to get a massage. 1.5 hours later and I was no longer feeling sore and achy.

From there I decided to head home. My path put my going through the city hall square again so I got a few photos of the city hall at night time.