1/12/2009

Day 57 - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - Notre Dame Cathedral, War Museum, Buddhist Temple, Central Market

Today is the first official day of our Wendy Wu tour. There are 20 of us on the tour (including Sura and I) and they all Nan & Pop's age except for Aunty Andy and Uncle Cam. Everyone has been very friendly and think we are cute - it's like having a big family. This morning we visited Notre Dame Cathedral (which is much smaller than its namesake in Paris). Mum thought the stain glass windows were beautiful. The floor tiles looked like Escher's work. Next we went to the post office and sent great nanna Laurel a postcard. I hope it gets to Australia before we do.

We went to the War Museum next which was quite sad, there were many photos of people who suffered during the Vietnam War but we all learnt a lot. In Vietnam it is also called the 'Silly War' because the Vietnamese people were fighting against one another. We also saw the infamous Tiger Cages which are cages made out of barbed wire that three to five prisoners of war were forced into - even though the cages are barely big enough for one person to lie down in. There were also lots of other tortures that were inflicted on the prisoners of war that are too horrible to mention.

After the Museum we had lunch and then visited a Buddhist temple in Chinatown. We could hardly see for all of the incense that was burning in the temple and Mummy was watching a little boy whose grandma was teaching him to pray to Buddha. Our last stops of the day were at the Wholesale and Central markets. Mum, Nan, Aunty Andy and Sura (the girls) went shopping in the Central Market and all the vendors told Mum she was very good at bargaining. Dad, Pop, Uncle Cam and I (the boys) went shopping for a 5-string bass guitar for Uncle Cam which we bought for $240 which was a bargain. After shopping our tour guide took us all out for a yummy Vietnamese dinner. Then we went back to the hotel for sleep - we were all tired after the long day.