We had been researching about Vietnam tourist destinations and checking a calendar. We even walked back to the "backpacker's area" early to see about buying a bus ticket to start our process of heading north. We talked though and figured we have already done enough beach-breaks, so several common stops were not necessary. Similarly, Dalat is a high-altitude city made famous during French colonial era. We did some of those type of British hill-country stations on this trip well. The ancient cities of Vietnam's central coast might be interesting but we have done a lot of ruins and will go on to Laos. So we made a big decision; we are going to fly to Hanoi directly. It will save about 48 hours in buses and only cost twice as much at around $90 each. We walked back to the hotel room and I created an account on JetStar and we'll be aboard one of their planes on Wednesday.
Last night, I sort of became enamoured with the old area of Ho Chi Minh City. The streets around the historic center were so pretty. Modern LED street lighting created a shimmering and welcoming atmosphere. Therefore, today, we walked back towards that old center of District 1. It really reminds one of a European city. The design of the Cathedral Notre Dame, of course looked French but in the daylight the People Committee Hall was petty impressive. It was built as the Saigon City Hall in the French Colonial style at the beginning in the early 1900's.
We just got back from a great dinner in the backpacker area. I had pizza and Jay Malaysian-style nasi goreng. We watched all manner of tourists traipse past. As we are left with an extra day, we also bought day tours of an few islands in the Mekong delta for tomorrow. It should last from about 8:00 to 5:00.
