Today was a day to get over our jet-lag and accustomed to the new time zone. We stayed at the Rex Hotel right in the center of town. My recollection is that we all slept pretty well. We had a great room with a separate room for the adults and breakfast included at the hotel.
We were finally out and about by 10:00 AM.
The 1 Year Anniversary of this shopping center. Note how all of the celebratory signs and the name of the Saigon Centre are all in English. Surprising.
Lots of motorbikes.
We walked to the Ben Thanh Market. It's the main market downtown. It's hard to take decent pictures of the crowds and variety of goods being sold. These Asian markets are pretty incredible.
The market is behind us with the clock tower. There was a lot of work on some public transportation projects right outside the market.
We really didn't have any plans for the day, so we just kept walking around downtown. This building was interesting, because it looks like most of the balconies were different coffee shops or stores.
Our next stop was at the Saigon Skydeck in the Bitexco Financial Tower. When this tower was completed in 2010 it was the tallest building in Vietnam. Now there are a couple of taller buildings.
The views from the tower.
Looking through one of the telescopes at the market that we had just visited.
That's the building. We were on the floor just below the helipad.
The Opera House.
Lunch at McDonald's. I don't know why Ada is flipping us off.
Next stop was the Independence Palace. This place was very prominent during the war years and much of the building has been frozen in time from that period.
There were some tanks and jets on the grounds.
One of the main ballrooms.
I don't think the girls knew what those devices were.
These girls shyly asked if they could get a picture with the white girls.
On the roof of the palace.
We stopped for ice cream on the way back to the hotel. No pictures of the ice cream, but here is Ada.
A quick swim in the rooftop pool. That's the skyscraper that we went up earlier in the day.
We capped off the night with a traditional Vietnamese water puppet show. It was held in the open air atrium of our hotel. It was great. Something to definitely do once when you visit Vietnam.
The city really came to life once the sun went down. This was the view from our hotel room of the main street plaza area.
Some reading before bed.
Tomorrow we embark on an adventure to some more remote areas of Vietnam!
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