Waking up in Saigon to face another ridiculously hot day, I regretted booking three nights here! The hostel was fine, all girls room with an ensuite wet room and free towels, but there was nowhere to socialise within the hostel itself, and only the bedrooms had air conditioning. Nothing else for it… Time to go for a coffee! The Vietnamese coffee chain Trung Nguyen had a store a few doors down from my hostel so I went there for a cold coffee to try to wake up, and also kill an hour or two! I booked a tour for tomorrow to Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai temple so that left me with another day in Saigon.

For lunch, went to have delicious Bun bo Hue – I might be in Saigon not Hué but hey it’s good food! That plus a beer = happy 🙂 also had spring rolls and bo la lot which is beef wrapped up in betel nut leaves.

It was Independence Day today so I saw a square in the centre of Ho Chi Minh was putting on performances, and so I stopped by to watch the rehearsal before the evening performance at 8pm. It was… quite Communist 😂 Everyone showing through interpretive dance that they are good workers/farmers etc.

The dancing was fun but I’m glad I didn’t go to watch the performance as one dance was enough and that was only 5 minutes! Went for a bit of a wander around the city, walked through the Ben Thanh market which was sweaty and full of vendors selling assorted tat, before arriving in the old quarter with the Notre Dame Cathedral built by the French and the Saigon Central Post Office.

The cathedral was beautiful with a great atmosphere; one of the deacons allowed me into the main church, through the tourist fence behind which hundreds of tourists were trying to take photos. Enjoyed taking in the beauty there,nclassical French architecture and the stone imported from France! Then went across the road to the Post Office, another great colonial building, had some local schoolgirls come to take their picture with me (lucky them, I think was about 30% sweat at this point so I’m sure it was a great photo!)

I found a bar off Le Loi and Nguyen Hué to have a beer and watch an Independence Day parade, before going to get some tea. I went to a recommended restaurant… Ngoc Chau restaurant, and I was quite disappointed. Bit greasy and overpriced. I braved the streets again, dodging all the motorcycle taxis and other dodgy street sellers, and went back to the hostel for an early night. Chatted to some new dorm mates for a while (two nice American girls and a Singaporean lady), early start for my tour tomorrow!