Sorry to post a truncated blog last night, but it was very late by the time we got in to the hotel, and finding I had WiFi access, I thought that I should post now, as tomorrow I may sleep. Bob did a magnificent job in getting our taxi to the city soon after clearing customs, and the hotel, although in a touristy area, is very good and central.

This morning, we woke relatively early and headed down to breakfast in the foyer where a crowd of locals and tourists were tucking in to their choice of bacon and eggs, omelettes in various guises, and beef or chicken noodle soup, with french bread and fresh fruit. I opted for the light soup (good choice, Carolyne), while Bob chose the Tomato Omelette.


This was included in our room rate.

We then headed off on foot to do some errands and exploring. The temperature was around 30 when we stepped outside before 9:00am, and while Bob's Gamin found the satellites readily, mine took somewhat longer. We found an excellent bookshop around 2 blocks away, and restricted ourselves on this occasion to a map of HCMC (8,500D/60c). We came across an office for Vietnam airlines which took us to the next item on our To Do list. We took a ticket and waited for our time to come up in air conditioned comfort, where we confirmed our onward flight to Ha Noi on Saturday, and that we only required the e-ticket. We also got some prices for some flights from Ha Noi to Dien Bien Phu (830,000D/AUD$55), Siem Riep (3,716,000/AUD$250) and Dalat (1,680,000D/AUD$112).

The search for espresso coffee and mobile phone cards was then on with some earnest intent. This led us to the markets, where we found a few 'fancy' looking places for espresso, however the 29,000 Dong ($2) price seemed excessive to us and we kept looking.

We went inside an interesting oasis ("The Blue Cafe") where one walked on stepping stones set in loose river pebbles across the floor in icy air conditioning. Service was attentive, although we were discover that they did not have espresso, and reluctantly did not stay for there was a table of two men smoking which upset the ambience. We did find a local place on another corner and ordered espresso (15,000D/$1), although are quite unsure of what we actually drank. It certainly had some sweetened condensed milk added to it (Ca Phe Da - Black Coffee - is what we must order in future), but it was a wonderfully vibrant and busy place with friendly service by a 13 year old (best estimate), endless iced tea and spirited games of checkers at nearby tables. We enjoyed the atmosphere and it picked us up before we searched a collection of holes in the wall selling phone cards for one by the Vina phone company.

We eventually found a seller, and set up our phones.

Bob's number is: +84 1234 98 15 62

and Carolyne's: +84 1234 98 15 60


This left us free to wander the smells and sights of the early lunchtime hubbub of the central markets where we found stall selling soda water (10,000D/75c). This picked us up, and we went in search of parks and alleys where we might find good local food.

We found both, and Bob had his cheeks pinched by an enthusiastic woman in the park to boot! We found a popular local place and had rice, spicy fish and chinese green vegetable. We had to convince the owner that despite being westerners we didn't want fried rice (everyone else was eating boiled). It was incrediably delicious, although we didn't leave our battered stainless steel table in anything like the condition that everyone else did.

I was starting to tire rapidly so we headed back to the hotel. In the words of someone famous (Robert Harlow, Port Macquarie Public School c.1955, "What I did on my holidays") - Tired, but Happy.