South East Asia 2017 - Day 33: Ho Chi Minh
Wednesday 6 September, cloudy, rain, 32°
We got up at 6:30am and went downstairs for breakfast, then Liz went for her cooking lesson. This consisted of being picked up in a cyclo ( like a cycle rickshaw ), given a brief tour around town, then to the Ben Thanh Market to have a look at various foods and spices with a guide, then out to a restaurant kitchen to cook ( and eat ) a few dishes. She left at 7:45am ( picked up from the hotel ) and was dropped off at 11:45am.
I just used the time to relax and update photos and blogs.
We headed out at 12:30pm, and walked around the area where our hotel is, and eventually wound up at Starbucks, and we sat upstairs and watched the traffic and people go by,
After lunch we walked down Ham Nghi to the Saigon River, then along the riverfront ( with a heavy downpour as we walked ) and then back through town to Ben Thanh Market. We bought some 'name brand' bags after haggling a bit over the price and then we walked back to the hotel at 3:30pm.
At 5:15pm we went for a walk through Di Tich Mo Co Ho Lam park near the hotel, and came across a couple of games of "shuttlecock", which is a cross between badminton, soccer and volley ball, where the shuttlecock is kicked across a badminton court between opposing players. As we were watching one of the players came over to us and explained the game to us, and that he was the coach of the people playing, and some of them were professionals at it. We watched for a while and took some photos and then carried on walking around the park. As normal there were lots of people exercising in the park ( always walking anticlockwise ).
We walked back past our hotel and down to Ham Nghi to catch the sunset and maybe the full moon rising ( never saw the moon ) and then we grabbed some dinner at Mon Hue restaurant, and then back to the hotel at 8pm.
We have another travel day tomorrow as we head into our last new country of the trip.