We decided to get an earlier start today so that, hopefully, it wouldnt be quite so hot and humid as we walked to our first sightseeing stop?? We hit the dining room for breakfast about 7.45am and we were out of the front door of the hotel before 9.00am.
We were exploring on foot again today. Yesterday we saw the Hop On Hop Off bus so we looked into that on the internet yesterday afternoon. Hmmn, it turns out that its a bit of a misnomer because you cant actually hop on and off the bus! You board the bus at the Opera House, a 45 minute loop of the citys main points of interest and then you hop off the when you return to the Opera House. There was also a long list of things not allowed on the bus. OK, strollers and large pieces of luggage I understand BUT the list also included: no cameras, no sunglasses and no cell phones. With exclusions like that we thought no way!
Our first destination this morning was the History Museum. The museum is housed in a Chinese style building that was built between 1926 and 1929. Constructed
around a beautiful inner courtyard houses a collection of around 17,000 artifacts. The collection is really well laid out and has plenty of interpretative information for visitors. In addition to a really collection the museum boasted very clean facilities that we used before heading off to our next stop for the morning.
We turned right at the front of the museum and made our way along Nguyen Binh Khiem. Phew, our route took us along a couple of Ho Chi Minhs larger thoroughfares so it was a bit challenging making our way across some of the streets. At least these days most of the traffic actually stops for the red lights which does give pedestrians a fighting chance. However, you still have to be wary of the motorcyclists who dont believe traffic lights are for them AND the traffic that is making a right turn from the intersecting road!!!
The scariest part was the HUGE roundabout at the intersection of Nguyen Binh Khiem and Dien Bien Phu. Although there was a pedestrian crossing near the roundabout we erred on the side of caution and walked down to the next traffic light controlled intersection
to make our was across Dien Bien Phu. This meant that we went a bit out of our way before we reached the Jade Emperor Pagoda but, hey, we made it in one piece!
The temple was built in 1909 to honour the supreme Taoist god the Jade Emperor or King of Heaven, Ngoc Hoang. With the smoke of incense hanging in the air, the temple is certainly atmospheric. It is the first place that we have visited that is still enforcing a strict mask rule for visitors. The temple is filled with beautiful wood carvings and characters from both Buddhist and Taoist lore made from reinforced The temple is very much a working temple and I certainly felt a bit clumsy making my was around with a camera while trying to be mindful of the into the temple to make offerings and worship their gods.
When we exited the temple there was an enterprising taxi driver touting for our business in his very small sedan. We had already decided that we would walk back to the hotel so we declined his offer. Whether or not all four of us would have actually fitted in
such car remains a mystery!! Based on past experience we were also dubious about whether, once he had us in his car, he would have wanted to take us to his cousins silk shop or his uncles jade shop?!
When we arrived back at the M Plaza (underneath the Intercontinental Hotel) we were dripping with sweat and keen for a cooling beverage. We ate at another one of the restaurants in the food court today. It was certainly lovely to sit down in air and order cold drinks. My first food choice was not available so I quickly selected another option from the same section of the menu thinking it would be similar. A mistake as it turned out.
