Ho Chi Minh!

The first few days in Ho Chi Minh City have been better than expected! It is not to loud and very  sunny compared to Hanoi which is the capital of Vietnam and I don't know why because it is much nicer here!

I woke up at 7:00 and mom and Dad had already packed so I went out side with my soccer ball and juggled for a little before a mini-bus came and picked us up from the side walk (by this time mom and dad had come out with our bags) and put our bags it the back of the bus which was really hard because it was tiny and was filled with some briefcases. There were a few people on the bus (which meant it was full because it was a mini) but not many people were traveling with so many bags. We got to the bus station and there were like 2 buses and a lot of people. One even drove away but more came so the bus we went on was not as full. I took my ticket from dad and got on to the bus and walked to the 21 seat and sat down.

We stopped and all the passengers streamed out and got some food from the Vietnamese restaurant. But unfortunately we don't speak Vietnamese so we had to go to a little shop with fruit and popcorn and eat that.

We did not want to go to Ho Chi Minh city yet though because we had a night in Ben Tre' first. So they just let us off the bus and we got picked up by a taxi and we were pretty close to Ben Tre' any way so we hopped in a taxi and drove to our hotel.

Ben Tre' was nice and quiet. We rented bikes and went around an island and saw a lot of coconuts and a fish sculpture made out of a tree! We were tired and when we got home I stayed and Mom and Dad went out to get a little lunch and then came back. Our hotel was nice and we enjoyed it. There was a TV so I was content. My bed was a mere mattress with 1 blanket and a fan pointed right at me and I was freezing!!! In the middle of   the night I got up and moved the mattress out from under the fan. After that I was cold but I fell asleep and woke up the next morning.

We went down stairs and had breakfast at a little cafe and I got a beef rice thing and  bacon. Then we rented bikes again and did the same thing we did yesterday except we took the littler paths and the rickety bridges. We stopped once and got water from a little store in the middle on no where. They had some cold water and before long we were off again. We went to the other side of the island and saw the coconut candy factory and got a sample. It was too sweet. That is why there were so many coconuts every where. We got back to the hotel and mom and I rented a Chaly. It is a 50cc bike that is smaller (for me!!) and for the first time I could ride comfortably! The bikes mom always gets are a bit to big but I can still ride them. So we rode that for a little bit and then came home and got onto a mini bus to a bigger bus then we rode that to another bus that took us to the city of Saigon then a taxi to our hotel called Saigon Star and plopped our stuff there and walked to the park which was next to us and then went to a cafe and had mongo smoothies. The next day we got up and went to the south Vietnamese former Presidents "White House". The bomb shelters were cool but the other bed rooms were not. We saw the landing pad where the people from the government lifted off in there helicopters to escape the north.

We also went to the war museum and saw the "jail" and all the pictures about Agent blue or red or something. They also had a big jet and tanks.

We took a taxi to a really good ice cream shop called X-CREAM. They had really good ice cream and then we walked to the market and shopped around and got some presents and I got 2 soccer jerseys for $10 with matching shorts. Then we took a speedy motor bike taxi with a funny driver and got home in "a record time"!!

I fell asleep and woke up to room service.

Mom and dad ordered some fries and beef and the guy brought it right up! I never had room service so I was astounded and ate the dinner and went back to sleep.

The next morning mom rented a motor bike, I wrote this post and dad read. After that stretch of boring mom drove us to a cafe and we had some good smoothies.

Then mom and I explored and found a street with a lot of animals and looked at some dogs, cats, snakes, lizards, birds and a monkey! You could get a cute dog for $11. We gazed at them till we got tired of the little barks then drove back to Saigon Star. (PS our camera broke so we can't post any pictures.)  JM :)