Poor old turtle

Saturday 21 December

I was feeling slightly tender today, having reacted to something eaten or coughed at me. So I took it easy and went to the City Museum, called the Revolutionary Museum. Some material was new but there’s an awful lot of repetition across museums – Same aircraft used to bomb the Palace; same picture of the tank rolling into Saigon – and so on. I feel slightly over-exposed to the message now.

Later on I went to the Jade Pagoda which is a large temple, rated the number one Saigon pagoda. I could see the point with the pagoda itself but outside there’s a miserable tank of turtles and a miserable pen of tortoises, all climbing over each other. Saddest of all was a huge turtle (must have been nearer two feet than one foot long), in less than splendid solitary confinement in a tank about two and a half times his size. 

Saigon is a funny place and it is clear from the Trip Advisor posting that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I don’t think it’s entirely mine and I am extremely glad Hanoi got me in training for its excesses. An old dear ran into me on her bike today (I had the green man as I pointed out to her!) and then a motor bike damn nearly took me out as I walked down the road. Everywhere else in Vietnam has grown on me; I think Saigon has, if anything, grown off me and I’m somewhat looking forward to the relative civilised normality of Hong Kong now. Saigon seems a great place for Westerners who want to sit on the street drinking 30p bottles of beer; also great if you want the attentions of the bar girls. But I found HaNoi much more to my liking.