It's Sunday but we walked out of the hotel and I was immediately impressed with this city. On the Vietnam map it's called Ho Chi Minh City, but in many people's heart it is still Saigon! Our hotel is in District 1. We simply walked out and towards the Ben Thanh Market and accidentally came across the "Backpacker's Section". How nice to be in a city which is really set up for tourism. The streets are wide due to their French heritage, and also clean. Flowers are planted everywhere. Also yellow potted flowers adorn the front of most businesses as decoration for the recent start of the New Year which is referred to as Tet here.
We found the market and noticed lots of tropical fruit for sale. Jay ended up buying one as it was unfamiliar looking to him. It was a larger version of milk fruit known in his language in Sri Lanka. We also bought other things such as cut jack fruit to put in our hotel room's refrigerator. We walked back to the busy tourist section for lunch.
It was hot enough at 2 o'clock for a little nap.
We are trying to figure out how many days we have remaining and how to fit the rest of Vietnam and Laos into the remaining days. We may see what we can of the old section of the city this evening and tomorrow. Am I ready for a night bus tomorrow? This seems like a really nice place to spend more days than we have available.
The area of District 1 near the Opera House is beautiful!
