Saturday 2 April 2011

A Day On My Feet

Greets,

As the title suggests, I spent most of today on my feet. In an attempt to have a chilled day, I decided to meander through the city and take in some sights. This wasn't actually my plan earlier this morning, but I met a Canadian guy by the name of Andy Ma and we decided to visit some of the parks and Ben Thahn Market.

The parks in HCMC are amazing. They form little bubbles in the town where people can go and relax away from the pace of the rest of the city. When you step into a park you realise how accustomed you've become to the ambient noise of the city. In the parks it is almost silent and the atmosphere takes a very layed back step to the 'chilled' direction. The parks are so green and topiaried trees are part of the attraction. In one park in particular there were trees shaped like dragons and elephants and foxes/dogs.

Ben Thahn Market was everything I expected an Asian market to be; crowded, cramped and full of cheap knock-offs of Nike and Rolex. I must have spent a couple of hours just wandering through this incredible place.

More exploring to be done now. I'm off to check out the night life as suggested by my uncle.

Dong still dry
Oliver

P.S. Still no luck with finding a PC to upload pics from. I know you want to see them, please bear with me.

3 comments:

  1. Hey Oliver It sounds absolutley amazing. Love the description of the urban parks. This is the stuff of our Growing Together book - the critical role that urban parks have to play in cities. Sounds as tho you are having a fantastic time. Love that you are meeting people and travelling around with them - otherwise travel can be quite lonely. We at Imfolozi now and will be able to maybe chat tomorrow - but then off the network for 5 days... gorgeous, wild and wonderful. Have an awesome time. Lots of love Merete, Glenn and
    T

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  2. Please buy me a cheap knock-off Rolex. I want to be the envy of all my friends. May your dong remain as dry as a bone.

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  3. Hello boy :)

    We are thoroughly enjoying following you on your travels! Sounds like you're having an amazing time and can't wait to view the photos once you can upload them.

    Thinking of you...
    Lots of love from all of us up in Joeys.
    Dawn, Kelly, Dean, Don, Ger and kiddies.

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