Saturday 10 October

What a great night's sleep. The hotel is very quiet and beds are comfy. Finally up about 7ish. Need a cuppa as we plan our day. Don't need to meet with the tour group until 6 tonight so a full day to plan. Breakast at a leisurely pace and we gather most people have had an earlier start than us as there aren't many in the restaurant. It is a buffet and very Asian offering. Just as well I brought the vegemite! We have decided to do the hop on off bus and I worked out that there is a stop very close to our hotel which means we eon't be taking a 20 minute taxi ride to the Opera house which is stop 1. We are feeling very brave as we head out and manage to master crossing the road twice without loss of limb. It is only a few minutes before the bus arrives so we duly hop on and settle in. We are at stop 9 and have it explained to us that a couple of the stops won't happen due to festivals and maintenance. We we get to stop 1 we have to change buses so start our hour long ride without getting off. It is a bustling place for sure.

We passed lots of embassies too and the rsil.line that goes through asmall.shopping street.Everyone has to get out of the way when the train comes through.

We have decided to stay on for a whole route and then go around again to get off at any of the spots that sounded good first time around. We have bought a 4 hour ticket so have plenty of time.

So much happening everywhere. the audio commentary is really good too.its probably about 30 degrees and some humidity but we are doing fine on the top of the bus.

Second time around we get off at West lake. The smog is bad so everything is very hazy. Once again we have to cross the road and we have scooters lining us up but they missed us by "this much".

We wander into Quan Thanh temple which is amazingly quiet being so close to the busy dual lane main road that runs by it.

We then walk along the Truc Back lake edge and decide we will keep walking until we get to traffic lights and attempt to cross the road there. Mind you, the traffic lights are no certainty of a safe crossing as vehicles turning, do so against the lights.

We make it safely back to our bus stop and our timing is perfect as less than a minute wait and we are back on the bus. We are happy to get off at our stop 9 and make our way to our hotel where we have a late lunch in the lobby Cafe.

Back up to our room for a freshen up and J decides to have a little snooze while I try and sort through photos and the blog. It's already 4pm and happy hour will soon be calling. Roy and Bev join us a R wants help with his phone a he doesn't understand putting it in flight mode and using What's App. Who in this current day and age would have ever thought I would be the tech savvy go to person? Time to go to our tour group briefing with Nguyen (pronounced win) where we meet our fellow travellers. Nope, no one here on first impressions that is likely to make the BFF list. Then it's time for dinner which is a set memo but turns out to be very disappointing. The first course is prawn crackers followed by the hotel's version of ceaser salad.

The mushroom soup was actually chicken and noodle soup that may or may not have had a mushroom waved over it. We then had a beef, vegetable, fish and rice plates to share on the table.

Very disappointing as it lacked flavour,and we then finished with tiramisu which was okay, but oddly wrapped in dark chocolate.

As I was sitting at a table end, I had Frank and Ivanka (originally from Croatia but now from Perth) next to me and it was hard going trying to make small talk with them. I was happy to finish up and head back to our room. Hopefully another good night's sleep ahead after a good day of getting out and about.