Breakfast was included at the hotel. We were given a short menu to choose from, which mostly consisted of bread rolls with some type of cooked eggs or a fruit bowl with yoghurt. Kyle, who had been up all morning watching basketball, opted for the fruit bowl, while I went for the poached eggs and bread roll. The poached eggs were like rubber bullets, but edible. Tea and coffee were also provided which was nice.
After doing some HCMC apartment hunting admin in the morning, we ventured out to explore the Imperial City. We walked there, on the way discovering a cheap grocery store where we stocked up on beer and fruit and bought a sesame baguette for lunch. We stumbled across many other interesting and entertaining things, including enthusiastic lunchtime karaoke and a jar full of preserved lizards.
On arrival at the Imperial City we were in awe, even the fortress at the entrance was impressive. Again we were hounded by people trying to sell motorbike tours, but we were having none of that and walked straight to the ticket booth.
We spent 3 hours exploring the grounds. It was interesting to read about the long dynasty and the different emperor’s. Particularly the last emperor who’s priorities were apparently dance and sport. Unfortunately the original site has been destroyed over several events, including war and a typhoon, so although there were a few ruins which were fun to explore, the majority of what stands there now is modern. It was difficult to know exactly what was similar to the original site due to so many reconstructions happening on the site at different times.
As we left the Imperial City we found a sky full of kites! I enjoyed watching and looking at the different kites, Kyle wasn’t so amused…. Fair enough as we were both hot and hungry, hanging out for air con and food.
For an early dinner we went back to Madam Thus. The new dishes we tried were the fried tomato tofu and eggplant and the pork and shrimp fresh spring rolls. Both were so good!
After dinner we went back to the hotel to make a plan and book a bus for our onward travel. Eventually we decided we didn’t need to go to Da Nang and would instead go straight to Hoi An to maximise our beach time.
Kyley on Tour 