Not the worst night sleep in the world, and with just a hint of jet lag, we leave for the world just before midday

First stop is the Highland Coffee shop, just down the road – it’s a big chain here, seems similar to Costa Coffee but we wanted something safe

It delivers two cappuccinos, two bahn mi que (mini bahn mi sticks it seems) and a free tiramisu on the side

Post coffee, we head to Thái Bình Market as it’s just over the road – a jam packed tat market of all sorts but it’s toasty!

We don’t hang around, we grab a Grab cab and head to the Opera House on the other side of the district

Opera house isn’t open so we get a nice view outside before we stroll on to the Saigon Central Post Office and catch a glimpse of Notre Dame, which is still under construction

We were here 14 months ago and it was under construction then too – must be a big project!

After popping into the Post Office, and chatting to a lady about a Viet coffee filter and some Civet coffee (beans come from cat poo ????), we head around the corner to Ho Chi Book Street

This is a jazzy pedestrianised street lined with book stalls and coffee shops – one is own led by an old lady selling her own book that details her experiences during the US invasion

We have a sit down in Đẹp Café, on this street, for a couyp of smoothies and a pizza, all for only a few quid ????

Post refresher, we head on down to People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City and some of the first friendly faces of the resident pigeons we’ve come across

Down and around the Ho Chi Minh Statue, we next head to the Independence Palace

For about £10 we get entry to the palace, with and audio tour and entry to an exhibition on the history of the palace

In a nutshell:.

• Today’s Palace occupies the site of the former residence of the French colonial Governors General, designed by Achille – Antoine Hermitte and completed in 1871
• Following the 1954 Geneva Accords, the old structure – renamed Independence Palace – became the residence of the first President of the new Sài Gòn Republic, Ngô Đình Diệm
• After a bomb attack, on 27 February 1962, President Diệm commissioned the celebrated Vietnamese architect Ngô Viết Thụ to design a completely new structure; the project took 4 years to complete, with a 6-month suspension of work following Diệm’s assassination in 1963
• His successor, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, assumed the presidency in October 1967 and occupied the Palace until his abdication on 21 April 1975, when he was replaced by his Vice President Trần Văn Hương, and then a week later by General Dương Văn Minh
• On 30 April 1975, Liberation Forces entered the palace grounds and raised the flag of liberation for the first time from its rooftop: General Dương Văn Minh offered his unconditional surrender
• Victory had come: the liberation of the South had been achieved

• TLDR (too long, don’t read): Diem unified the South of Vietnam after the French defeat, he became a dictator and the people had an uprising supported by the North of Vietnam; Diem was supported by the US as he was more West-leaning than the North – with not being overtly communist – and eventually lost, his though not before over 2 million people were killed…

After the sobering tour of the palace and exhibition, we head down to Ben Thanh Market

We find a stall that sorts us a Viet coffee filter and we get to enjoy a free cup of Civet Coffee (mmmm cat poo) and then head off in search of food!

There is plenty of cheap eats in the market, but we are enticed by somewhere we spotted earlier opposite the palace – Ben Nghe Street Food

A jazzy selection of foods from around the world: we get a cheeky pint – for less than £1.50 – and start off with a Gyros! (Yes it’s even spelt correctly here ????????)

For the second tasting, we send Daisy off on a mission to surprise Dave!

She doesn’t disappoint, on returning with two mojitos and a mixed meat udon noodles, from VietHouse ????

Finally, a few spring rolls and cheap beers before we head over to the famous Đ. Bùi Viện walking street!

It’s a long and mental party street, just like Ko San Road in Thailand – think cheep beer, loud music, dancing girls, the works… but still plenty of cars/scooters driving down it for a walking street

We wander up and down, down some side streets before ending up at Beer 118 for some cheeky, larg 67p bottles of beer watching the fire breathers, squid salesmen and general chaos

At one point, our table, drinks, and everyone is flung off the street as the rozzers come by; apparently, they aren’t allowed tables on the street until after 10pm but it’s all quickly reset as they pass

We finally get to sample the dried squid dangling from the many carts that pass by – as expected, it is very, very fishy and quite terrible! But was courtesy of our new friend / sugar daddy sat next to us so we don’t feel too bad!

We move on to Lost In Saigon for some live music by a couple of Canadian musicians with some cheeky Budweisers, a game of billiards and then some more live music including a good cover of Evanescence!

Sozzled we pick up some water, head to Maccies for a cheeky end of night burger and get back home in time to get a couple of hours sleep before our 7am start!