Two days in Ho Chi Minh City

Before we fly to Cambodia this afternoon, I will share our past few days in Ho Chi Minh City. It has been delightful, albeit extremely hot and humid! Our hotel is very comfortable, excellent air conditioning, big shower, clean room, delicious American or Vietnamese breakfast cooked to order, and very friendly staff, especially Giep with whom we speak every morning. He's not the manager, just an employee, but he takes care of everything like a manager or owner. 

Phillip and I are awake and have our breakfast on the hotel's front patio at around 7:30 am, then we head out before it gets unbearably hot. We are still getting acclimated to the weather. On Tuesday, we walked across town, ending up at the zoo/botanical garden. The most fun part of that experience was watching all the elementary school groups who were there. We were watching one group whose teachers were trying really hard to get the, probably 6-year olds, to sit still for a picture. The teachers saw us and waved us over to join the group picture. We obliged, and apparently since we were there, the kids settled down and the picture, with us, was taken. 

The zoo itself was fairly small, but with the usual animals represented. 

Some of the enclosures were interesting, such as the one where the moneys shared the space with the porcupines.

We also noted escapees from the monkey enclosures, but the escapees do not leave the zoo, as they know where their food is!

We spent about two hours in the zoo. The botanical garden part of the title referred to the beautiful plantings throughout the zoo, not a separate area. We walked back to our hotel for the air conditioning during the afternoon. Enroute, we stopped for some type of beef stew. It wasn't thick like my beef stew but thicker than pho. It had plenty of meat, vegetables and noodles with the underlying well-seasoned liquid reminiscent of pho, but more savory. (USD equivalent for food and tea: $1.86 each)

Yesterday, we did not have a specific destination in mind, so we just walked along the river and back thru downtown before sitting in several parks. 

 We watched local fisherman with their nets as they caught fish.

Phillip and I always stop at the parks we come across. They are shady, a few degrees cooler, and it gives our feet a rest. According to my Fitbit, we walk over 20,000 steps each day, about 7 miles. Twice yesterday, at two different parks, we were approached by college students who wanted to practice their English. Two girls, business majors, spoke to us in one park and three girls, who were joined by a boy they did not know, in another park. We talked for about half an hour to the second group of students. Two of those girls were in college to be English teachers. They said that English is still a compulsory class in public schools. The third girl, and I think the boy, were business majors. We love these interactions with the locals. 

We leave our hotel for the airport soon. Giep said the airport is inefficient and crowded so he recommended we arrive three hours before our flight. Most of today will be spent on this travel part of our adventure. Next stop: Siem Reap, Cambodia.