Our last full day in Vietnam started with a walk through the Chinese food market the smell of dried fish was interesting! We then visited the Lady of the Sea Temple in China town. The temple was very old and built from donated money when the Chinese first emigrated to Vietnam. They believe that the sea goddess protected them in their journey.
We then jumped on the bus and went to the War Remanents Museum. This was very thought provoking and reminded everyone of the horrific results of wars. The exhibits told the story the French invasion and treatment of the local population and also the war against the Americans and the effects of agent orange. The prison or Tiger Cage as they were called, was a little confronting.
Next stop MCDONALDS! Yes finally McDonalds has been allowed to open in Vietnam with the first two shops in Ho Chi Minh City. I have to say I barely ever visit in Brisbane but it was lovely to have chips with salt on them and a Big Mac!
After lunch we hit the markets. Bargaining was the aim of the game and I think we all have our souvenirs and presents sorted.
Tonight we celebrated one of the tour guides birthdays. Victor turned 23 and had never celebrated a birthday. We had a cake and all signed a card. Happy birthday was sung at least 4 times to make up for lost years. He could not believe we would do this for him - I say any excuse for a party!
Tomorrow we check out at 9 then visit a shopping centre before lunch at the Pizza Hut and check in at the airport.
Our flight details are AK532 from SGN to KL then D7206 from KL to OOL arriving at 7.25am we then board the bus at 8.30 and travel to Lauries hopefully arriving between 10 to 10.30am. I will ask everyone to call when we hit Loganholme so you know of our progress. Please google flights so you know whether we are on time or not as communication may be difficult from KLif we are running late.
As this is the last blog of this trip I hope you have all enjoyed following our journey and the experiences we have had. My overseas children have been fun, challenging sometimes (they are teenagers after all), homesick occasionally and hard-working and I will miss them but not next week :)
Thank you so very much Heather for the wonderful blog and photos - it will be great to have you all home but I will miss reading it every day!
ReplyDeleteWow what a great trip... Heather thank you so much for your wonderful blog it truly was awesome to wake up each morning and read exactly what you had all been up to thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSafe flight home and looking forward to seeing you all get off that bus tomorrow. I have indeed missed my girls