Vietnam 2024, December 06

A similar breakfast for day two except they had potato wedges which was a great addition. After fighting through the traffic again I went back to the river for running again, and did a similar route across to the other side.

After coming back to the hotel the first stop of the day was the Independence Palace for the self guided tour, and I didn't bother with the audio guide. The access to the main palace was 40,000 plus another 25,000 for a small exhibition in a separate small building.

The tour was mostly peering into rooms that were roped off, but there was a good amount to see on a few levels. The bunker level was probably the best location, and it ended with a souvenir store so I got a few more magnets.

The exhibition outside just had a few other facts about past Vietnam political leaders, and not many people bothered to visit by comparison. In total I probably spent about 1.5 hours walking around.

Across the road was Ben Nghe Street food market which had a variety of world cuisines that seemed targeted for tourists, but it was a bit early for lunch. Heading back towards the Notre Dame Cathedral for a second time, from the opposite side it was all under construction too. In the same square was the old Central Post Office building that I missed yesterday, which still operates as a post office but was crowded with tourists.

I went for a walk down Nguyen Hue Street which is one of the main retail streets, and also had some of the courts for the teqball tournament. They have this unusual cafe apartments building where the apartments have since been converted into small cafes and food shops on each level, but still with an apartment feel. All of the courts for teqball actually had teams playing today, so I watched for a few minutes but it's a very weird sport and not that interesting.

Another street over was Bitexco Financial Tower with the Saigon Sky Deck, the ticket was about $10 to go up and walk around the observation level. It was a bit surprising that it wasn't on the top floor or even that close, something like 49 out of 68. I was able to get a view of my running route with the 360 degree view, and all the other parts of the city. In the distance there was some other part of the city with a concentration of large buildings to the north and to the east.

Since it was towards late afternoon I stopped in at Saigon Centre for some food to take back for dinner. They had a Japanese Takashimaya group of stores in the basement as well as other unrelated restaurants. I got some pretty boring bread snacks from the Japanese bakery again and some drinks. Before dinner I went for a walk down to a possible smaller running option and found where a Japanese ice cream place was, an underground food and marketplace that was quite hidden.

Steps = 27,753 with 12km running