We made an early start and went off to the Binh Tay Markets today. My bad – we were supposed to go to other markets but I spoke to so many people eventually I got confused and took us off to the wrong spot. It only matters because tomorrow we are doing an organised tour including going to Binh Tay Markets. Maybe we missed some stalls….
After the markets we walked a long way… checking out life in Saigon from all the angles. It’s a lot to process – but safe to say it’s an order of magnitude more intense than our lives in Sydney. 12 million people packed into a 24 hour city, and something like 8 million riding scooters. When the light goes red they shortcut over the sidewalk. If you’re brave enough you can get an Uber Scooter.
We went to see the Jade Emperor Pagoda – a Taoist temple that is one of the most famous temples here. One of the staff at the hotel told us Barack Obama went to see the Jade Emperor Pagoda. It was fascinating to see, and as much as I wanted to take photos I didn’t want to offend anyone so only snuck a few
We rounded things off with a massive meal of things I don’t really want to eat again – a five course Vietnamese street food tour of Saigon. The tour guide was funny, we went along with some nice people, and the boys had fun. Thousand Year Old Egg…. Shudders…