We are back in the hotel where we spent our first night in Saigon but on the sixth floor giving us fantastic night time views over the city and avoiding the noise of the street market in the alley starting at 06.00. A quick breakfast (Glenn electing to have omelette again, although this was on the list of potential culprits for his Montemuza’s as he had it that morning - is he crazy?!!) and we were off heading down the alley weaving our way around the morning shoppers. Yvonne caught sight of live frogs in a bowl and yelled to Glenn to come and take a look, where upon he commented they had been skinned. Now weak at the knees, Yvonne frogmarched (!) to escape the chaos and get to the main street.
We managed to pick up a tourist map giving a very rough outline of the city and, with Glenn tutting about no scale, he led us safely around the city stopping by the “must sees” including the Post Office building which has opulent French architecture inside and out and was heaving with tourists. The HCMC opera house is also a beautiful building and as we arrived there was a bride and groom in an VW beetle convertible posing for photos outside, along with an entourage of male guests lined up either side with their decorated scooters. We manage to find a bride and groom in every country we visit.
We noticed the opera house had a one off, evening performance of Russian music by the HCMC Symphony Orchestra and with Glenn’s love of Russian classical music (who knew?!) we decided we could do with a spot of culture and headed to the box office for two decent seats. The venue is normally home to a long standing modern cultural show, AO, and stopping to look at the reviews for this, we were accosted in a most delightful way by a young Vietnamese girl who did a fantastic sales pitch on us and we ended up buying two seats to see this the following evening. So much for our daily budget and low cost travels planned around Vietnam. The Mekong cruise and now theatre tickets for two consecutive nights!
Back at base to a) stop spending any more money and b) to avoid the heat of the day, we caught up with a nap along with forgetting the combination for the room safe. A great way to avoid spending money! Just a small issue with passports etc. locked in there. The manager is on site tomorrow, hopefully with a master key.
All glammed up for the concert we returned to the Ban Cha restaurant that we’d found on our first night, just in time to get the last table. After another fabulous and extraordinarily cheap meal we set off for the opera house at a slow pace to avoid getting too hot in our travellers evening wear. The area around the opera house had been made a pedestrian area and the folks of Saigon were out enjoying the evening, especially the kids running through the pavement fountains.
As the doors were not open on our arrival we sat on the steps watching the audience gather: wealthy Vietnamese mothers with their young sons, the nouveaux riche arriving in their cars and a mixed assortment of westerners. Inside we sat next to an English lady who, we learned, was a senior manager at BP based in Jakarta. She described how she loved her job but was working 7 to 7 most days. Another slave to the world of commerce we fortunately no longer belong to.
The concert itself was a real treat (see footnote for the programme) and we sat in our grand seats thoroughly enjoying ourselves with the only thing missing - ice cream at the interval.
The day, if you can still call waking up at 0300 the ‘day’, rounded off very well watching England beat France in the Six Nations Rugby on the chromebook, which luckily wasn’t put away in the safe box.
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| Just some of the scooters in Saigon |
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| City hall |
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| The wedding party |
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| Street Barber |
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| Post office |
Footnote- concert programme:
Modest Mussorgsky – Overture “Dawn over the Moscow River” from opera Khovanshchina
Piotr Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
I. Allegro moderato
II. Canzonetta: Andante
III. Finale: Allegro vivacissimo
Violin: Anna Sowanna-Takeda
Vasily Kalinnikov – Symphony No. 1 in G Minor
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante commodamente
III. Scherzo. Allegro non troppo
IV. Finale. Allegro moderato
The only thing missing from that photo is a number - it looks like a prison mugshot. Still, I suppose that is not surprising after Glenn's recent ordeal. Best beware of aquatic food gathered in rivers which double up for sewage disposal!
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