HCMC to Danang - Day 3

Jamie and I got up and ran our 5k in HCMC this morning, but then went back to bed. We all finally got out of the hotel and on to some destinations by 10:00. Our first stop was to cruise through "flower street," the same site that we were on last night for the Tet New Year's Eve celebrations. This time, we all took some pretty cool pictures in front of tigers and flowers. Our next stop was the famous Ben Thanh Market, although most of the stalls were closed. We'll come back here next Saturday though. We found a refreshing BBQ Garden restaurant that we had drinks only in, and walked our way through the city to the People's Committee Hall, or City Hall, of HCMC. The building is nice and it the dead end of the flower street festivities. We took our picture next to a nice statue of Ho Chi Minh, or Uncle Ho as the Vietnamese call him.

We then went to one of the main pagodas in HCMC. It was very crowded because of the new year holiday, and we got a sense of the importance of the day to many Vietnamese. Our next stop was a restaurant which is actually in the book, 1000 Places to See Before You Die. It is called Pho Hua, or Pho Hoa, and it serves the basic Vietnamese dish of noodles, beef, sprouts, greens, and peppers if you wish. It was quite tasty and we ate with the locals.

This is where I royally screwed up. I had been thinking that we had another night in HCMC and we'd fly to Danang the next day. Actually, our flight was for 3:30 this afternoon. It wasn't until 3:00 that I realized that we had to fly today. Frantically, I called our travel agent and asked if we could get on another flight. She was able to get us on a 7:10 flight tonight. We arrived at our hotel in Danang, the Danang Riverside Hotel, around 9:00 pm after only an hour flight.

We were very lucky to have the flight on the same day. We had already booked the hotel in Danang, so it was fortunate that our travel plans for the week were not blown up right then.

Tomorrow, we are going to see the famous Marble Mountains, My Son Archeological Site, and the Cham Museum.

Be sure to check back for more photos. I have added Kathy's photos into an album. In her album there is also a couple of videos of the Tet parade we witnessed on New Year's Eve. Worth check out.