As I started the computer, the TV had what I think was the Vietnamese version of American idol, but no one who seemed to have quite the character of any of the US judges (of course, I can't understand a word they are saying). So what are the other TV choices - here are my guesses - unbelievably melodramatic Korean soap operas, Vietnamese comedy shows (I can tell from the canned laughter), Chinese medieval war stories (these I recognize from China), some soccer games, and what might be National Geographic or Discovery Channel dubbed in Vietnamese. Earlier I caught the end of an Australian news show and then found Jimmy Fallon doing a Justin Bieber parody. So much for acculturation.

So now I am at Saigon Mini Hotel 1. today I set out to explore this city by walkign the wrong way. I figured that out after one long block. It was a good long walk, but an opportunity to get a feel for the city early in the AM - noisy and chaotic, but easier to cross the street in Hanoi because there are more stoplights. However, at one busy corner I was just standing on the sidewalk waiting for the green light when I glanced about ten motor scooters coming around the corner and at me on the sidewalk. One is not safe anywhere.

I walked through a park and viewed a cafe where the men had all brought their pet birds in their bird cages (something I had seen early in the morning as well in China), some teenagers having some kind of unusual event with teams and people lying on the ground and then someone sitting on a balloon and popping it on top of one of the prone people, and group of women dressed in identical athletic clothes doing their AM Tai Chi exercieses.

First stop was the War Remnants Museum - the front courtyard has various types of American aircraft, tanks, and a few exhibits of bombs. As I walked in I was approached by a man for money, a victim of the war missing both arms and one eye. The museum is moving about the effect of the war (the American war on Vietnam) on the Vietnamese. South Vietnam had a government intially supported by the USA, so it is a different feeling here in the south. The exhibit was disturbing as to be expected when viewing images of the destruction war causes including people burned by napalm, resumably innocent people who were killed by the US army. There was one room devoted to the effects of Agent Orange - which is just horrible with the terrible birth defects. The exhibit even included several American soldiers who had children wity the birth defects, presumably caused by the fathers' exposure to Agent Orange.

Then I walked to the Reunification Palace a block away. However, it is on a very LARGE block and both maps I had did not show where the entrance was, so I ended up going the wrong way and had to walk nearly all the way around to get in. I latched onto a tour and met Sue and Glennm from the UK who had been at my hotel in Dalat. This was the palace of the S. Vietnam president pre-1975 and has many reception and dining rooms, a helipad, and an underground bomb proof command center and living quarters reminiscent to the War Chambers in London used by Winston Churchill during WWII.

The next sites were a view of the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Post Office (reminds me of the era of LA's Union Station). I found a French restaurant, Le Jardin, in the guide book and it was on the way to my next destination, so stopped there for lunch. It was nice eating Salade Nicoise outside in a garden setting and is apparently impossible to get into in the evening without a reservation. I met the two people (Esther and Patrick) at the adjacent table, initially when they shared a mussel with me, who are from Toronto but have been living and working here for six years and had an interesting conversation with them.

I walked to the zoo and botanical gardens which were nice, but nothing special and then visited the Museum of History. I found the similar museum in Hanoi much better althought there were some exhibits here that had a different focus. From there I went to the Jade Emperor Pagoda, touted by the guidebook as the one pagoda to visit in Saigon. Certainly from a beauty point of view it was not the nicest I have seen, but is very much a working pagoda. I then went back to the upscale shopping area and decided to try to find the bus station where the jacket I had left in Hoi An had been sent. (Haven't posted that story yet). As I was walking there about 4 PM, the sky was getting darker and darker and the wind was picking up. Just when I was across big roundabout from where I thought I was supposed to go the heavens opened up with a deluge. Turns out the public bus station was the wrong place but on the same street, but after walking about a quarter of a block under my umbrella I was so wet I just stopped and went in the first open store I could find which was an art gallery/studio. The artist was busy with computer but there was another Vietnamese man in there waiting for the rain to pass who spoke English and had lived in Virginia with his sister for two years and was very happy to tell me his story. The rain lightened only slightly and I decided to move in and about two blocks down the street found the fight place, an office for one of the open tour bus companies. My package was actually there. So I opened it and put on the jacket, found a taxi, and headed back to near my hotel where I needed to meet with the travel people to schedule my Mekong Delta tour. That encounter took several hours, but I was generously provided with many cups of tea and evena banana shake. I had hoped to charge this on a credit card. (Credit cards are not used a lot here) but the transaction would not go through for no understandable reason. The last explanation I got was that due to rain, the transaction transmission was faulty on the dial-up modem. Fortunately I had enough US dollars with me to pay for this. After some continued friendly conversation with the travel people I came back to the hotel, just a block or so away, changed my shoes and went back out to walk around the area and find some dinner. This is the hotspot of budget hotels and restaurants. For the first time on this trip I saw not one but about six of the open tour buses that seem to have two levels of accomodation, I think like double berths for sleeping. I had a nice little dinner of cooked prawns with some fresh greens in a coconut shell filled with some broth and a glass of Tiger beer. Then back to the hotel and this blog. So these were the highlights of today.