Ho Chi Minh round two

We were back in HCMC for 2 nights before taking the scenic route back to Phnom Penh. Since we saw quite a few of the must-sees the first visit here, we did more walking and stopped by a couple buildings we missed the first time around. We also knew what to expect so we weren't as thrown off by the craziness. However, I was still looking forward to getting back "home" to Phnom Penh which now seems so sweet and quaint.

After visiting the busiest post office in Vietnam and the Notre Dame Cathedral which is another French Colonial building that draws thousands of tourists. After another delicious dinner (I aware to you every meal I had was so good), we saw the Ao Show at the beautiful Opera house. The show is an art performance that reflects the spirit of the Vietnamese people and their heritage. A combination of story telling through music, acrobatics and dance made for a wonderful show. We could not take pictures so take a look at the trailer here.

To top off our visit we arranged a 2 day tour back to Phnom Penh by bus and boat. Day 1 was 6 hours on the bus with a visit to the Mekong Delta floating village in the middle. After seeing my fair share of people living on boats, the highlight was seeing how coconut candy, puffed rice and snake wine was made. Of course I was happy to taste test everything. Except the wine. I left that one up to my mom. Day 2 was an early start where we took a 5 hour boat into Phnom Penh. Aside from the deafening motor, it was a nice to switch up the scenery and chat up some other travellers.

I'll admit that the post office was pretty neat. However you had to swim through people inside to actually mail anything. 

The Cathedral which is only open to the public during Sunday mass. 

Hair cut anyone?

Cross this street without a break in traffic? No problem! 

Pho with the roomie. Just. So. Good.

Of course I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the Opera house, so here is the inside. 

Rice transport. 

The river is lined with shops and houses. 

These and small narrow row boats are everywhere. 

There are several stories as to why fishermen paint eyes on their boat but it seems the most common one is to help them find their way home and scare off sea monsters. 

Snake wine. Not going down well apparently. 

The sun drying out rice paper. 

Coconut candy. Yes. I got 6 packages. 

Unless at a restaurant in the tourist parts of town, meals are usually family style. I love it. 

Our sweet ride (cyclo) to the boat in the morning. Our driver kept turning around while biking around and asking for a tip. And I kept saying "ya, ya, just get us there first". Yeesh. 

Our boat at the border. They didn't even take our bags out. Just processed the visas. 

We chose to sit in the back instead of inside. Which was a good choice if you wanted to stretch out. I may have lost some hearing but it was quite enjoyable.