Had a great weekend with my brother (Nick) and his girl friend Desiree here in HCM City.  I think the theme of the weekend can be summed up with scooters and rats.

We had some drinks at the tallest building in town on Friday night, Bitexco,  and then I took both of them home on the scooter.  For once it wasn’t us staring at the crazy things the Vietnamese transport on the scooters, it was the other way round!

On Saturday they rented a scooter and we went on a tour of the city.  We were heading for lunch and it took us 2 hrs to get there instead of 20 minutes.  We had a slight detour around the city and we were creative in the road rules and got the approval from some fellow Vietnamese creative rule followers.

Here is a video clip of what the traffic is like

https://instagram.com/p/_L_od1g9qn/

After our tour around the city and sucking in fumes, we thought we would relax at the botanical gardens.  When we got there we found out it was a Zoo too.  We saw elephants, giraffes, bears, tigers, lions, birds, crocodiles, hippopotamus, otters, goats, sheep and monkeys.  Some of the monkeys could fit through the bars so it is up close and personal.  Desiree had never been to a Zoo so it was lots of fun.  We watched elephants dance, monkeys eating corn flakes and we even poured water on a crocodile trying to get it to move.

On Sunday we thought a bit of culture was in order.  We went to the Notre-Dame Church and listened to the choir.  I think it was the first time Nick and I had been in a church since our high school days.  Our Grandmother would have been proud of us.

Now about the rats.  I have been here for over a month and until Thursday I had not seen a single rat.  Now I see them everywhere.  We were at a bar and we could see the rats running under a table.  At the river, they were on the banks and ironically they were also at the zoo.

We had lots of laughs and ate some great food.  This is a fritter and you make a wrap using the lettuce leaves.  The lady next to us showed us how it was done:).