Day 5: Sun 3 Nov - Ho Chi Minh City

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30-38 deg C

Official tour starts today.

We were awake at 4:30am, just because. We breakfasted with the crew at 6:30am in preparation for an 8am start with Tom, our guide for the next 17 days. Tom is the younger brother of Kim, our Vietnamese guide in 2016 on the Bangkok to HCM City ride;  it's certainly a small world. Later in the day we found out that Mr Visa, another of our guides from 2016 is also a guide on this tour.

Today's itinerary reads:
"Meet at the hotel; take a fascinating tour to explore the historical sites of downtown Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City, visiting the famous places such as the War Remnants Museum and the Presidential Palace. Go to garage for the bike fitting. Having dinner at a local restaurant and our guide will have a trip briefing. Discover the city by rickshaw or on foot. Overnight in Saigon - Avanti Hotel. 0km cycling"

We opted for the walking option instead of the rickshaw as we figured it would be safer. It was most unfortunate that the three (one was not listed) places we visited today, we had done before - The Presidential Palace, War Remnants Museum, and Saigon Central Post Office. The others (M&S, G, G&C) had not seen the Palace and Museum, so it was all new to them. We did the Palace again as we had a guided tour this time. We spent an hour at the Palace and an hour at the Museum, and not long at the PO, and were back at the hotel about 12pm in time for lunch at our new favourite cafe, then a little rest.

We met up again at 2:30pm to be collected by Tom and the bus to take us for bike fittings. We had our seats and pedals put on the bikes, as did most others and the process did not take as long as expected and we were back at the hotel before 4pm. As it was too early for dinner, Greg and Bob went for a wander while Wendy did some admin and blog writing. 

Dinner meet up time was 5:30pm followed by a walk to the restaurant, about 1.5km. For the first time this trip we didn't have to decide what we wanted to eat. Tonight was our first meal included in the tour. We were served five dishes - green salad, crispy veggie spring rolls, sweet and sour pork, chicken of some description, and fish with a dressing of chilli, lemongrass and turmeric, accompanied by your stock-standard steamed white rice. All very nice tasting and surprisingly filling. We waddled home via Walking Street with lots of pubs and clubs all trying to outdo each other with their music and light shows. 

We are all eagerly awaiting our first day of cycling tomorrow, only 25km, but ok for the first day.

Presidential Palace




                                                    The original "Palace" was built by the French

















































No tank busting down the gates today, rather lots of tourist buses driving through














Post Office

Some rain this afternoon made for some good photos

Walking Street





Avanti Hotel, room #310




















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