Day 2 - Tuesday 16-10-12   Ho Chi Minh city

We took a walk-about after breakfast and went to an optomerist to buy some glasses. I have purchased a spare pair of normal glasses and a pair of prescription sunglasses which I am looking forward to receiving tomorrow.  Much, much cheaper than buying glasses in Australia!

We went to a huge market called the Ben Thanh Market, which is a bit like the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, except it was PACKED with very little room to move through aisles. We went looking for a sim card for my phone but after 2 minutes in the place, I wanted OUT and left and will not go back. It was totally overwhelming to me. 

 

After leaving the market, we wandered some more and saw an art exhibition, Ho Chi Minh's statue, the Opera House, various VERY spiffy hotels and ended up at the Rex Hotel (very nice place and lovely staff) where we had a couple of beers and fresh roasted peanuts -- just delightful on a very hot and muggy day.

 

A taxi brought us back to our hotel where we dumped gear before heading off over the road to a vegetarian restaurant where we had a beautiful meal. Turns out that the manager's partner is a photographer who has produced two books of stunning photos. You can see some of the images here (http://mochoatho.vn/) if you are interested in having a look.  While we were eating, I was able to continue to take photos of street action, some of which you can see below.

After a bit of a shower and a nap, we wandered up the road and found a restaurant run by a guy from Brisbane (Terry) who owns and runs the place. After sitting on a first floor balcony checking out the scene while we ate diunner and had a couple of beers, we had a chat with Terry about things we had questions about, one of which was about massages available and how to tell if they were good or not. On his recommendation, I went next door to his place and asked for a foot massage. The young girl was okay but she talked a LOT while she was massaging (to another girl massaging a guy) and did feet, legs, hands and arms and a brief rub of the head and managed to do it all in 45 minutes rather than the 60 minutes I asked for for feet only. I'm sure I will benefit from what she did but I will not return to have her work on me. 

We plan to wander around some more tomorrow and then head off on a 2 day Mekong River tour before coming back and perhaps catching a midnight bus to Darlat. I look forward to taking some good photos from the Mekong tour and sharing them here.

 

Cheers everyone.

Some PEOPLE photos from the streets of Ho Chi Minh city.