Monday, November 11 - Saigon

Monday, November 11 - Saigon

As we were getting ready this morning, the sound of children singing drew us to the window.  Seven floors below, we could see an entire elementary school seated on their tiny plastic stools in a courtyard, chanting and listening to the morning exhortation.  It went on for quite a while and, by the time we were ready to go down for breakfast, there were signs of restlessness among the troops!

We were headed this morning to the History Museum, the Zoo, and Botanical Garden.  We decided to walk, so as to get a bit of exercise before it got too hot.  As we passed through a street market en route, we did wonder about the condition of meat that sat out in this city's heat for any length of time.  

We stopped back at City Hall and the lovely plaza dedicated to Ho Chi Minh that it fronts. With a good distance still to go, the heat was starting to wear us down, and it was only 9:45!  It was warm when we started out and downright hot by the time we reached our destination.  The museum was closed, information that had not been on its website, but it's located right at the entrance to the zoo and garden, so we hadn't wasted the time or effort.  We spent the morning wandering among the animals and the abundant shade trees and were feeling the heat by noon.

We took a cab across town to the Xa Loi Pagoda, which was closed for a lunch break.  That seemed like a pretty good idea to us, so we repaired to a restaurant across the street for our own intermission.  After the pause that refreshed, we visited the pagoda and then took another cab to Phuoc Hai, the Emperor Jade Pagoda, built by Saigon's Cantonese community.  A large, shady courtyard, with pools of fish and turtles and a shrine to some goddess set the scene in front of the pagoda.  Inside, there were several rooms, each with one or more altars, many ornately carved and decorated figures, flowers and other offerings, candles, incense, and the faithful who had come to worship. 

Once again, we decided that we'd taken as much heat and humidity as we cared to, so we rode back to the hotel about 3:00.  The only other place we've called a halt after less than a full day was Hong Kong -- and that was in July, not November!  We may be weak, but we're smart enough to know when to say when.