Woke up late - last night's coffee and excitement kept us up until after 1am! Weird.
Cheap baguettes for breakfast - we had spotted them whilst out the night before. Got our drinks 'no ice'...but they came with... We were thirsty so drunk fast to try and beat the melt - both survived the experience!
Freshly hydrated and fed we set out to search for water - explored beside the river and then the rain began to move in.
Sought shelter in Circle-K then hunted for a movie theatre. Eventually got info as to the whereabouts of one but nothing close enough to our district to fit our time frame so returned home.
Showered then off to see Notre Dame Cathedral Saigon and the elaborate (and slightly like Wellington Train Station in a weird way...) Central Post Office. Had an hour or so to spare before meeting Michelle Rutter (yay for NC teachers!) so found a random Czech brewery/bar and enjoyed a cold beverage with cards to pass the time.
Met Michelle at a medical centre with many international teachers - some 'teacher talk' while people were waiting for results, immunisations etc then took a taxi to District 2 (ex-pat central). We got to see HCMC International School (Michelle's new post) and her interim-semi-permanent accomodation. Walked to explore the area for dinner - and ended up with a delicious meal. Bray had cheese, potato and NZ lamb in a shepherd's pie while Michelle had delicious chicken. Roni ordered a simple chicken & mushroom clay pot.
We all had a surprise as the staff proceeded to bring out a gas hob, huge saucepan full of broth/soup and a ma-HOO-sive platter of chicken with mountains of veg, plus a plate of udon noodles. Roni was a tad overwhelmed and the other two had a great laugh at her expense! Bray managed to help consume it fortunately but even then we didn't manage to polish it off.
Back to Michelle's (met her principal en route) for her specially purchased 'visitor biscuits' with a Nescafe 3-in-1 plus REAL milk. Delicious!
Caught a cab home feeling VERY full! Then Bray packed while Roni labelled photos.
