Days in HCM

I chose this photo of me because it is a reflection and softens the image I usually see when a picture is taken. 

I have enjoyed HCM this time after a 10 year absence. Maybe it has something to do with the luxury accommodation  we have enjoyed so much here or just that I have cioped with the heat better than I expected.

The odd ice coffee helps especially when we set out to find a pagoda of interest with squffy instructions and hot humid day. We locate other bewildeed travellers and join forces to find the elusive Jade Pagoda. We come upon a pagoda no one is absolutely sure whether it is the one we are searching for but decide at this pont any pagoda will do.

They offer us living turtles as we enter he pagoda to put our names or a wish printed on their back but opt to leave the poor turtles unmarked

There are ponds full of turtles, coy and gold fish. The pagoda is made up of various rooms with different deities with lots of dark wood, caring, gold imagery and a haze of incense.

Back into Distict1 for some nem (spring rolls)

HCM is so much more sophisticated  than I remember from 10 years ago but still there is the real HCM in amongst the modern. This lady sitting selling a popular dish and just a couple of metres up from her parked was a brand new BMW convertible.