Off to Market.... and a dinner cruise!

This morning, we walked down to the Ben Thanh market to do some last minute souvenir shopping in Vietnam. Again, a huge market with everything you could possibly need - or not need - but the vendors in this one a lot more “assertive” (read pushy) than others we have been in! We did strike a few bargains though, after some creative negotiating - they start asking about triple what they end up selling for so it’s like a game to see how low they’ll actually go! It’s kind of like the game of dodging traffic on the streets of Vietnam - we found out yesterday that Saigon has a population of around 10 million people, and there are 8.5 million motorbikes in the city! Add to that the cars and buses, and what appears to be a total lack of “rules of the road”, and it can be total pandemonium being a pedestrian! Motorbikes ride and park on the sidewalks, and it’s not unusual to see them on the wrong side of the road going against traffic - crazy town!!

We took our purchases back to the hotel and set off again on foot to find the “Heart of Darkness” brew pub, which is only about 10 minutes away from where we are staying. Brew pubs are becoming quite popular in Vietnam, and while I’m not really a beer fan, Dave found some samples he really enjoyed (fortunately, most of them sell wine for me! 😊). We had drinks and a couple of appetizers there, then walked back to the hotel to spend a bit of time at the rooftop pool again!

We had booked a dinner cruise for this evening so got ready and headed down to the hotel lobby, where our tour guide, Kelvin, (aka Tai) met us around 6:30, and along with his driver, took us down to the Saigon River to board La Perle d’Orient, our quaint little cruise ship! We were served a lovely 5 course meal, with wine, and after we ate, moved up to the top deck for the nice breeze and a tour up and down the river. Kelvin came to sit with us on the top deck and gave us some interesting information and history about Saigon. We always like hearing things from the perspective of local people, and it especially makes us appreciate what we have at home! The boat docked around 9:30 and our van was waiting to take us back to the hotel. Travel day tomorrow so up with the sun again! 😊🌞Read more