Cooking and Getting Lost in Ho Chi Minh City

Hi All,

Back in Ho Chi Minh City, my last full day day that I can explore the city, what to do? I decided on taking a cooking class that my friend Barbara told me about. Great, I was all excited. A sure way to get to know a culture better is through it's food and cooking it. So my morning and afternoon all set, then meet Barbara and Ron for cocktails on the roof of the Rex Hotel. Very fun. The Rex Hotel is where the commanders of the Vietnam War used to brief the press corps.....exquisite view of the city and historically very interesting.  In between meeting my friends and class, I also had a whole afternoon to explore. HCMC is growing and growing, there are construction projects everywhere. It is visually beautiful because you still see remnants of French Colonialism everywhere, buildings that look so French with all the embellishments, decorated like birthday cakes, you look to see what the building is currently being used for and it is The People's Committee Offices that house the Communist Party bureaucrats. Also pervasive remnants of the old French occupation of Vietnam, there are boulangeries all over the city and whenever you step into a place of business, they refer to you as, Madam. Although the Vietnamese don't like to talk about that long ago period in their country, and people who lived during that time period are very few, the French occupation of their land is still alive and well.