McGregor Musings: A city of contrasts

A good sleep - despite the air conditioner stopping in the middle of the night - sent the nausea away.

Up at 5:00 a.m. for a morning walk along the river.

Back for breakfast and then our travels together began. Mr Pokemon Go knew the streets already and led the way to Tao Dan Park.

A nice surprise - a Jollibee restaurant which we remembered from the birthday party for the compassion sponsored kids in the Philippines.

Then onto the Venerable Thich Quang Duc memorial.

Back in 1963 the government of prime minister Diem - a Roman Catholic - was severely persecuting the Buddhist majority. To get world attention Thich invited some international journalists to this street corner to see an important protest. What did they see? After his fellow monk doused him with petrol, he sat down and set fire to himself. The photograph went around the world and caused a great outcry and pressure on the government.

A powerful memorial

- though now you can buy Ray-bans across the street.

Next a fabulous French bakery. We especially enjoyed the chocolate croissant and matcha cream bun.

Then on to Mariamman hindu temple, built by Tamil immigrants in the late 19th century and rebuilt in the 1950s. We appreciated the informative signs in English but still found Hindu theology baffling.

Next Notre Dame cathedral. Unfortunately the scaffolding didn't really do it justice.

A fabulous surprise was the HCMC Book Street, full of lovely English and Vietnamese bookshops, art shops and cafes.

Then a long walk to a great games shop where they wanted to take a photo of the visiting celebrity for their social media campaign.

Some down time in our hotel room (while the service man fixed the air conditioner) before dinner at Saigon's craziest nightlife street. I've never experienced anything like it.