More to see in HCMC

After having spent so much time in rural Cambodia, I must admit I'm glad we don't have several days here in HCMC.  It is an interesting city for sure, and it does offer lots to see and do, but really I'm anxious to get out of the city and start seeing more of Vietnam.
And I don't have any longer to wait as we leave HCMC tomorrow.

As for today though - the day started with a cyclo tour of the city.  Here you can see the cyclo I rode in, along with my "driver" (or peddler?).

This is my friend Stephanie in her cyclo so you get an idea of what the whole package looks like:

And here we are, all twelve of us, negotiating HCMC traffic!  It truly was best just to look straight ahead and try not to be aware of what was coming at me in all directions.

Ironically the cyclo tour took almost the same path a managed to walk for myself yesterday so no new sights, but the experience of riding in a cyclo was worth it.

Free time in the afternoon found me heading to a new part of town.

My first stop was for a beer on the rooftop of the Caravelle Hotel.  The Caravelle was one of the first hotels to re-open its doors in post-war Saigon (HCMC) and it was used extensively by American troops during the war because of the views from the rooftop.

As you can see, there's no shortage of French influence here - and thankfully some of the original buildings still remain.  This is the Opera House (built in 1898):

And this is the People's Palace or HCMC People's Committee building (built in 1901):

My walk continued over to the Saigon River - which unfortunately isn't that pretty looking, or at least not at the place where I was.  I was sort of hoping there might have been a walkway or something along the bank but there was none to be found.

What I'm finding the most fascinating about HCMC though is things like this.  In the background you can see the newest and most modern building in HCMC (the Bitexco Financial Tower - and yes there is a viewing deck so you can see photos from there in the moment), yet right in front of me are bales of straw that are being hand-bundled (likely to go to market) by a woman beside the building.

Here are some shots of the sprawling metropolis of HCMC.  Remember, it does have a population of 7 million (+) people so no surprise that it's big.
The Saigon River is what you can see in the first photo.  In the second photo you see a man-made canal to help transport goods, and it goes all the way to the Mekong Delta.

And in this photo - find the two signs, Canon and below it Casio.  Then look to the right of the Casio sign and you will see two shorter buildings, each with a red roof.  In between those two buildings is a street - that's the street my hotel is on.

And the big red-roofed building in the lower right corner is the market I said was nearby.  How handy is that?

Leaving the lookout I just continued to walk around the city and found a number of wonderful little streets like this:

Complete with a liquor store:

And all over the city are the best parking lots I've ever seen!

I haven't been into one yet, but apparently this is Vietnam's answer to Starbuck's - and the local people are immensely proud of it!  And although I haven't been to one of these yet I have had some very good coffee,  Still waiting to try 'chon' though ... otherwise known as cat-poo coffee or weasel-poo coffee.  It is made from beans fed to a particular species of weasel and later collected from its excrement.

As I said at the beginning, I'm leaving HCMC city tomorrow and we're travelling south into the Mekong Delta area.  We're overnighting at a homestay so definitely no internet access tomorrow, but the following night we're back in HCMC again so hopefully I'll have some good stories and photos to share then.