Thursday 5th March 2015 – Exploring Saigon

Thursday 5th March 2015

Up early before 7am this morning thanks to the time change. We decided to have breakfast in lounge today, it is a mix of east and west including chicken curry. It is very nice again with a great fruit selection and the usual hot offerings.

Today is our full day of exploring in Saigon, so we went back to the room to get sorted. It is already a very sunny morning, so we decided our first order of business would be a walk to the nearby Saigon Tower aka The Bitexco Financial Tower. It dominates the skyline near the hotel, as it has a huge helicopter landing pad sticking out of it.

It wasn’t busy at all and offered great views around the city. One thing that has already struck me in Vietnam, is the number of abandoned building projects – next door to us us a huge 40 storey office block that is about 70% compete, even with glass in the first few floors, but it clearly hasn’t been worked on for ages. The bottom is boarded up and there are weeds starting to grow al around it.

Back on terra firma we decided to head up to the Botanical gardens, and rather ha get a bus we walked alongside the river along Ton Duc Thang, which is the main road running beside it . we walked past the pleasure boats, the working boats and other river life in the red hot sunshine, and had to stop at a shopping mall for some air con and a cool down. The shopping mall was next to the massive Meridien Residences that have been built overlooking the river and are not far off being completed. We then turned right along another busy road – the pavement was lined with a number of sellers – people with bikes selling goldfish, lottery tickets and flowers.

Next, we walked along Nguyen Binh Khiem to botanical gardens and zoo. It was 50,000 VND each (£1.50) to get into the very big complex. We were only expecting the gardens, as neither of us are big fans of zoos. First stop was a drink from the vending machine and a photo op with a big bird, that we both thought was stuffed! Then the orchid house, before moving onto the animals.

The black bears weren’t too bad – they have a nice environment, but the lions and tigers were in awful conditions. The monkey’s were in a good enclosure, and we enjoyed watching the elephants having a wash, but basically we concentrated on the plants – we also got good photos of some rats on the monkey island. Before we left we had a nice ice cream then headed for our next destination – the Jade Emperor Pagoda.

On the way we navigated some very busy roads, Vietnam style at the busy roundabout at the junction of Nguyen Binh Khiem and Dien Bien Phu. Towering above the island was a huge billboard advertising Dunkin’ Donuts billboard featuring Steve Gerrard and a couple of other Liverpool players. It was so hot that we had another drink at a KFC.

At the Jade Emperor Pagoda, it was bedlam. Outside, there were fish, cage birds, turtles, incense and flowers all being sold to be given as offerings by the many devoted who were flocking to the temple on foot and on their mopeds – the crowds were huge and the moped parking was an art. I had a sit down while Sue went in to have a look round – all fascinating.

We weaved our way back to the hotel, with Sue clutching her map and navigating us through the streets to the hotel. Once we were there, we went straight for a drink and a cake in the lounge, then we went up to the roof top pool on the 21st floor. It was a lovely pool with a great view over the city and the river. We sat and had a read and enjoyed the warmth.

Once the sun had gone down, we went back to the lounge for the evening food and had some, chicken skewers and sausage with salad and lots of other nibbles. We also had beer and cheese, before having a walk out to Saigon Square and Ben Thanh Market. This was great walk and was very busy. I tried haggling a bit, which I quite enjoying but don’t need any more shirts. Crossing roads at night is also quite an experience.

On our way back to the hotel, we made our way back over the metro building site with its Auf Weidersen Pet style huts full of workers. We had another drink in hotel, before settling down.