Back in Saigon

From Phu Quoc, we headed back to Saigon for a few days. There were lots of preparations going on for the Vietnamese New Year, which was going to happen at the end of our stay. It is a tradition to give flowers for the new year, and a huge flower market opened up in the park near our hotel.



There were other things for sale too.....



I think these are because this year was the year of the dog--they're made out of some sort of fruit. I actually saw a few more of these around the city, in front of hotels and such.


We had seen this earlier, from the back, before they stood it up.



So, of course, I ran up to it and leaped in to it with my shoulder. Who wouldn't? Well, Matt and Nile for one. In my defense (albeit not much of one) it looked like one of those inflatable bouncing rooms that kids play in. When we got to the other side, we saw what it was, and that they were actually in the process of painting the letters on the side. We went back to see if I had messed up any of the letters--but they were all fine. I guess I'm not as strong as I think.

One day we decided that we desperately needed a break from the heat, so we went to one of the water parks that we read about in our lonely planet.


Not only were we about 20 years older than any other kid in the pool, but Matt and I were the only white people there. My blonde hair and blue eyes stood out even more than it did in the streets, because it was added to the fact that I was also 2 feet taller than everyone else.

The kids were really nice to us though--I think they were practicing their English they learned in school with us. They would run up to us and scream things like "Hello! My name is Hwan! What's your name!", then giggle, and run away.

All in all, it was a much needed break from the heat.

We also went to the botanical gardens.



Supposedly they used to be really impressive, but there's not much left now.

But there were topiaries! (So glad I learned that word. Thanks Nile!)


The real reason we had gone to the botanical gardens, was to wait for the water puppets. It's an art form from Northern Vietnam. This was already the second time we had tried to see the puppets. The first time we went to the war museum, where they were supposed to be, and once they figured out what we wanted to see, they told us the next show was "never".

So, we went to this other museum where there were also supposed to be water puppets, but we arrived just on time for them to close for lunch. The botanical gardens are next door, and they told us that yes, there were water puppets at this museum, and that we just needed to wait the 3 hours they were closed for lunch.

I think what they meant to say was "yes, there are water puppets at this museum. Only not today. Too bad for you"


I'm not sure we were ever meant to see them....