Day 31 - 'Our last day'. Another lazy breakfast as our plans didn't really start until 13:30 when the War Remnants Museum reopened after lunch. We decided that we wanted to keep the room for another half day so we could have a shower before going to the Opera House tonight so sorted that early. In the morning we first went to the market again on the hunt for a Vietnamese hat for Alice to apparently wear in the garden. Not sure what the neighbours will think! No joy as we got annoyed quite quickly with people grabbing us to buy stuff and it was hot and stuffy so we soon jumped out of there. We decided to go to a large shopping centre and have a look around. Expensive shops on the first 2 floors and then a couple of floors of fake items, "not sure John Lewis would do it like that" quoted 'someone'. Next on the list was one of the other coffee shops we wanted to visit and Alice proceeded to have the most expensive coffee ever and I had a really nice hot chocolate with a monkey's face on top made out of the milk.
We then did a few laps of some close by streets to scope out where to eat lunch. We settled on a place called Vietnam Street Food where we both had amazing meals that left our mouths tingling with spice. Now lunch was out of the way we headed for the War Remnants Museum. We got completely lost on the way as on our map it was called something else and on another map we had, the museum was put where the Reunification Palace is! The museum houses some of the US forces machinery such as tanks, planes and helicopter. It also tells the story of the Vietnamese War or the American War as it is called over here. A very interesting visit with some shocking images of some of the victims shown through reporters photos. A storyline was told as you walked round which was heavily weighted against the US and left some memories that will stay with us for some time. Slightly frustrating that it was so one sided and would be really interesting to hear the story of the war from a neutral prospective. Another disturbing thing that annoyed us was people taking photos of some of the pictures of mutilated bodies and deformed foetus that was on show.
After the museum we went back to the hotel via a different route so we saw a bit more of HCMC. We showered, packed and got ready to go to the Opera House. Bit of a fiddle as we had to pack other clothes in our day bag to go to the airport in as we went smart to the Opera House. We checked out and put our bags with reception to keep hold of and went out into the street to grab a taxi. Jumped in a headed for the Opera House, a nice trip from inside a car instead of walking the manic streets and risking your life, shame it was ruined by the driver refusing to give me the full change I was due. Went into the Opera House but we were an hour early so just got our tickets and went out to have a drink at the nearby 'Bier Garden' bar. Back to the Opera House and we watched the AO Show which is basically a Vietnamese version of Cirque de Soleil which was really good. After the show we went to the Barbecue Garden restaurant as we had planned. A great meal where you order dishes and then cook it yourself on the small BBQ in the middle of the table. Got a beer I didn't order so happy days! Grabbed a taxi on the way home to save a bit of time before actually getting to the hotel with an hour to spare before our taxi to the airport. We just had to go for one more green saigon beer at the hotel restaurant before waiting in reception. About a half hour taxi ride and then queue to check in. Didn't check in online as when we tried it wasn't showing the seats we had selected so wasn't sure whether they'd give us random ones. Anyway, this is the last blog entry so thanks for following, Chris and Alice Back......signing off, over and out!!