Before we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City I attended at briefing by our Destination Lecturer, who mentioned that not all the cheap jewelry was authentic. She used a picture like this:

So, there you go.

I visited HCM City during my 2019 World Cruise, but it took me stepping off the elevator at my “Good Evening Vietnam” tour I remembered that I had done this tour before. Well, the emcee is still cheesy and I still doubt how traditional the dancing is, but I got a short video of the Dan Bau playing. While there is a microphone, the instrument is acoustic.

I’ll skip the rest of the show, see the above link to 2019 if you want more. However, we then left the hotel for the restaurant… and had to join HCM traffic.

It’s like this all the time. Our 12-person mini bus felt like an elephant walking thru an endless stampede of mice. The scooters are everywhere. But, we made it to the restaurant and sampled Vietnamese food.

Fruit was served for desert. I don’t remember if I ever showed you guys Dragon Fruit. Until I looked at the Wiki, I did not know it grew on cactus.

The next day I took the “Street Food” tour. We started at a general market of questionable sanitation, then traveled to a overly-fancy street food plaza near the Reunification Palace. The food was fine but not noteworthy. However, whoever decorated the bath rooms had a sense of humor.

I was unaffected, as I’ve had those reactions my entire life…

We then walked to lunch, which was full of locals. I took that as a good sign. I was struck by the flower trees at the front.

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A hot, humid day with some walking. Lord knows I could use the exercise with the food we’ve been served. The ship is slowly making its way north to Hong Kong. One of my fellow guests is tracking the Cherry Blossom forecast in Japan, and thinks we are right on schedule for the best viewing. We shall see.