Friday, Feb. 2 - Cat Tien NP to Ho Chi Minh City

 We met up for breakfast just before 7AM having packed up and being almost ready to go. Breakfast had hot eggs (finally) and rolls and watermelon juice.  The odd thing about the lodge is that the owners took off yesterday to celebrate Tet/Lunar New Year in Di Linh where they are building a retirement place.  They had implied that they would be at the Lodge and Mai’s sister had come to help as staff like to take the week off to celebrate.  But as we returned from the birding in the morning yesterday, Roy told us he needed to say good-bye as they were just leaving.  

The difficult part was that the remaining staff speak NO English and of course we speak NO Vietnamese!  Oh my.  We did manage to get dinner last night and our laundry with acting out what that was.  But we did not get any house keeping service yesterday.  Anyway, we did get a hot breakfast this morning. And chatted with Phil - an Englishman who has been there before and was called in to take care of a few things but he speaks no Vietnamese either.  So a bit weird but we managed.  Once Tien showed up then he made sure the bill was settled and coordinated transport of the bags and then us to where the ferry picked us up.

One of the Lodge cats who seemed to sleep 90% of the time but was very friendly

Sunrise in the humid sky over the river

Katy and the Lodge helper barely having a spot to sit

And there was the smaller ferry with Bom!  It was good to see him and he helped with getting us and the bags on the small boat.  We barely fit but were across the river in a few minutes and all back in Bom’s nice van.

Katy and Bob with the river and ferry behind

Houseboats in the middle of the river farther down towards Ho Chi Minh City

Bom drove us to Ho Chi Minh City which took about 4 hours. We stopped at a gas station to avail ourselves of a bathroom and were surprised to find music, Tet decorations and flashing signs!

Entry to the Ladies Room at the gas station

Flashing lights and music entertained us in the bathrooms

Dragon topiary!  This is the Year of the Dragon

It isn’t that far and there is nice highway part of the way but the rest of the way is slower road and then once in the city, the traffic was very heavy.  Ho Chi Minh City has many more cars than other cities we’ve been in though there are plenty of motorbikes too. We arrived at the Majestic Hotel which has been around since 1925 and is just across the street from the river.  We had to say good-bye to Tien and Bom.  They have both been terrific.  Tien is the co-founder of Viet Bird Tours which has a very nice website.  He has been an excellent bird guide.  Bom has been a wonderful driver in a country where the driving manner is so contrary to how we are used to driving and he is a very nice, sweet person. 

We had lunch on the 5th floor bar/restaurant and then Katy and I decided we should at least take a hop on/hop off bus tour to see a bit of the city since we leave in the morning.

My spacious room at the Majestic

Courtyard of the hotel with pool

Very cool bridge just down from the hotel - this is crossing the Saigon River

The front desk was very helpful and provided a map and told us where to pick up the bus and how much it should cost. As we walked down the street, crossed 3 side streets (without too much trouble!) we saw fantastic Tet decorations being put up - a multi-block long dragon or multiple dragons are being built.  There was a fence around the area so we could only get photos of the tops but it should be great.  After a few blocks, we saw a red bus waiting at the sidewalk.  We got tickets and after waiting about 20 minutes got on the bus.  We rode for 2 stops and then got off and on the bus that starts at the beginning of the route.  We went upstairs and watched all that we went by.  

Part of a dragon being created for Tet - Multiple dragons of different construction were being built in 3-4 blocks of garden space

The War Remnants museum - would be interesting to be able to visit

One of the Gaudi-esque buildings we saw

Traffic!  

Mounds of flowers being sold for Lunar New Year/Tet

One of the tallest buildings in Ho Chi Minh City with helipad on the side

Front door of our hotel

View from my balcony in the evening

We went by the old City Hall, the Post Office but then down streets of consulates, the zoo, the War Remnants Museum, past the City Health Department where some outdoor ceremony was taking place with singing and past a huge round about that had a tall sculpture and water and is a site for photos.  A large number of women dressed in colorful Ao Dai were posing in groups or individually.   Traffic was very heavy at times but we proceeded down the route eventually arriving along the Saigon River.  We got off across from our hotel.  We are meeting up for dinner at 7 PM for a final meal before we all depart on Saturday morning.