At Sea and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

02-07 Friday: At sea, South China Sea. Finally starting to feel rested. Distinct Voyages host, Helen, asked Stuart to make a brief presentation today. Not many showed up, but it was a nice time for everyone. After that we had a very nice wine tasting with Cellar Master, and friend, Bernardo. We found 2 wines we really liked. We included that in our next package selection. Helen is hosting a dinner in the dining room tonight. Helen hosted one table, and Stuart the other. It was nice to meet some new people as well. We spent some time in the casino and did very well at the Craps table.

02-08 Saturday: Private Ho Chi Minh City Shore Excursion from Phu My Port with Viator. It was a convenient pickup from Phu My Port, even though we had to wait for the shuttle to take us to the gate. Our Guide Mr. Castle patiently waited for us. Our transportation was a private air-conditioned minivan. The trip into Ho Chi Minh city too about 2 hours. We skipped the War Remnants Museum. We heard it is pretty gruesome and very communistic. Our first stop was the French colonial Notre Dame Cathedral and General Post Office. There is scaffolding all over the front of the cathedral but one could understand what it looks like. At the post office we exchanged money, I was able to secure a postcard and stamp so that got sent off to Sierra. There are all sorts of shops inside the post office as well. Now it is time for a coffee break where we enjoyed a cafe sua da (coffee with condensed-milk) and lunch at a local restaurant included. It was a cute place, very retro. The coffee was delicious. Now on to Independence Palace. We got on a little tram that drove us around the grounds. Our first stop was the Exhibition House, nest to the Independence Palace. Mina and Raine went inside the Palace but I opted to sit outside and Stuart did too. He has been there before.  

Our lunch stop was at Pho 24. What a delicious stop for Pho. The lunch was included in the cost of the tour, as was the coffee and entrance fees to the palace. It was nice to be able to customize our excursion to suit our interests and itinerary. We did decide we wanted to go to the Ho Chi Minh Museum and see the water puppet show. Mr. Castle was great about arranging that for us. It was fun and the museum itself had some interesting exhibits. We were back to the ship in plenty of time. One other interesting thing we saw today was some of the road sides cafes. There were of course, tables and chairs. However, the cute thing was hammocks hanging for patrons to take a rest! The lights were loving leaving port.

Dinner was disappointment at best. We thought the food was much improved after this cruise. We heard Willem was on now and it was a treat. The food seems more like the Zuiderdam was, delicious. Tonight was the exception to this. The food was barely warm when it got to us. Room temperature pork ribs and baked potato is not exciting.