Bus-t a move!

As usual, this Wednesday was our travelling day, so after a quick breakfast of pancakes, we figured out our route and caught the bus. Our first destination was Turtle Lake, a little known feature in District 1. When we got there, having walked from the nearby bus stop, we noticed a distinct lack of turtles. And lakes. What we found was a polluted pond that probably didn't support any life forms larger than microbes, in the centre of which was a large concrete sculpture of a lotus flower. When we researched this, we found that there had once been a statue of a turtle on a plinth (which still remains), but it had been blown up in an attempt by a minority group of nationalists in an attempt to awake the mythical dragon of South Vietnam and revive the South after the fall of Saigon. Obviously, it didn't work, leaving the oddly named place we see today.

Having met our cultural learning obligations, we popped in at a promising looking restaurant next to the roundabout Turtle Lake was on, looking to grab some lunch. However, when we tried to order the waiter communicated, through a mix of pointing and head-shaking, that no food was being served, only drinks. Disappointed, we all ordered a drink, then headed to our next stop, the Saigon Language School, on foot, grabbing a banh mi each for lunch. At the SLS, Mum paid half of the total fee and organized when our English lessons were going to be. With that cleared up, we left by bus again for Metro, the supermarket we had visited, after talking to a lady who wanted to say hello at the bus stop. Once at Metro, Mum showed her passport in order to get a day pass (Metro is similar to Gilmours in that you have to join and become a member, or do what we did and show our passports for a temporary membership) and we went through, just buying a few things we needed as we still had distance left to travel and didn't want to carry too much.

All finished, we left by taxi to our final destination, Souled Out, the church youth group. Sadly, I am the only boy older than 13 or so, but that can't be helped. Once youth group was over, we stayed around a bit to talk to the family who runs it, then headed home.