EC-Rider Travels

We made a decision to get up for the 5.45am sunrise, which was obviously overheard by the house gecko (bigger version than we usually see) who felt it was his duty to be our alarm clock. On the dot of 5.30 he came to life with his unbelievably loud call. It was a little cloudy, so not a peach of a sunrise, but still pretty, pretty.

After a breakfast of banana fritters, delicious but not great for the waistline, we were back on the bus heading back to Ho Chi Minh. We made a brief stop at a local market again full of amazing fruit, vegetables, meat and fish (covered in flies). There was also a whole tray of ducklings no more that a week or so old 😔.

We had a couple of hours to fill before we could check back into our hotel, so went to have a quick look at Ho Chi Minh’s famous Notre Dame cathedral, though unfortunately found it under restoration and covered in scaffolding. Although built by the French (1863-1880), it bares only a vague resemblance to its beautiful namesake in Paris. It has a rather stunning statue of the Virgin Mary in front of it, which in 2005 was reported to have shed a tear, attracting thousands of devotees to the city, however the Catholic Church could not confirm this.

We also had a look at the Saigon Central Post Office which was built by the French a few years later, just next door to the cathedral. It is still a working post-office, and would no doubt have been where we would have rushed to get our letters from home in days gone by. Sadly this is now a thing of the past, but it was nice to see lots of young sitting at desks, writing postcards under the watchful eye of Ho Chi Minh on the far wall. Ha told of us an amazing employee, Dương Văn Ngộ (aged 93) who only retired two years ago after 70 years. He was the last public letter writer who translated and wrote thousands of letters for people over the last thirty years. The post office now only uses three counters and the rest has sadly been turned into a mass of tacky souvenir shops.

There was an urban street food tour on offer this evening, but having just done a tour with Wann, I thought I would give this a miss and catch up on a bit of admin. Another early start tomorrow but nice to be in a comfy bed …. on my own!