Escape from Phu My Hung

I've not left the cosy confines of Phu My Hung for two whole weeks now. During that time I've been preoccupied with moving into my new apartment and buying stuff for it. I now have two plates and a bowl to add to the kettle, frying pan and pot that I bought previously. Today I thought it might be time to step outside this little world and venture into HCMC proper. Anyway, I had to go to the post office in town. I can't really believe that going to the central post office is the only way to post stuff back to England but I've been told that it is.

I shared the 1 o'clock shuttle bus with a collection of Korean housewives and their children into the centre of HCMC and set off on foot to the post office. It's a grand old building in the French Colonial style and is always full of tourists admiring the architecture. I was just there to post some letters.

After the post office I went to the Reunification Palace, another fine building, this one in 50's style, looking a bit like London's Festival Hall, lots of open staircases and wide marble floors with distinctive 50's shapes on door handles. The building looked Western but once inside the décor and furniture is pure Chinese, big pictures, lacquered wooden chairs and lots of red. Apparently it has been left untouched since the North Vietnamese army arrive in 1975. The best bit for me was the basement rooms, narrow corridors with lonely isolated cell like offices housing ancient communication equipment carefully laid out for the tourists.

I came back to Phu My Hung on the 4:30 bus and got wet again as the rain came down very heavily whilst I made my way back to the pickup point.

Reproduction paintings are popular here and there are plenty of shops in the upmarket foreigner area selling fakes. Van Gogh, Klimt and Cezanne are all popular with local painters specialising in a particular genre. Along with these there are other shops selling artist materials so I picked up a sketch pad and some pencils so I can do a bit of drawing. I can't spend all my free time in bars and restaurants can I?