THURSDAY, MAR 18TH--SAIGON DAY 2

We had a very interesting dinner last night as we were joined by Peter & Yasuko. Peter was a young British officer during the D-Day invasion and landed on Sword Beach. He is now 85 and sharp as a tack and tells stories about it as if it happened yesterday. He seemed more interested in my stories about the Vietnam war. As I said, I was suppose to leave at 7:15 this morning on a tour of the Mekong Delta but decided I had had enough hot bus rides. Probably should have done it as I’m sure I missed some good pictures for you. Instead we took the free shuttle bus downtown and was dropped off near the Rex Hotel with shopping streets all around it. The Rex Hotel was US headquarters during the Vietnam war and was where General Westmoreland stayed. It was also where military briefers did the news conferences for the press. We only spent an hour and a half shopping but found more Ralph Lauren polo shirts for $5 and Rebecca bought some scarves for $5 each. Funny thing was one of the store clerks was squatting in corner while she ate her lunch. I ask if I could have some and she said yes. I politely declined rubbing my stomach saying I was too fat already. She said my stomach was "smiling Buda" not fat. While waiting on the bus to return to the ship we walked through the Rex Hotel. There were some souvenir stands next to the ship so did more shopping after we had lunch on the ship. I bought a suitcase (bigger than airplane roll-aboard size) for $18 just in case we need it at end of cruise. We both bought more Polo shirts. I bought 3 DVD movies: Up In The Air, The Hurt Locker, and another one for $2 total. So it is now 4pm and we just left the pier and are sailing for the next port which is Laem Chabang, the port for Bangkok. Tomorrow is a day at sea however.