A Sunny Sunny Christmas!

The weather has been incredibly hot so the girls and I decided to find a nice hotel pool. We spent the day lounging at the Rex Hotel pool! Not a bad way to spend the day in DECEMBER!

Christian, Amanda and ME

On Christmas Eve we went out to dinner with Christian and David to Hard Rock Cafe. The food was delicious... just what we wanted a good ol' American meal! First Christmas away from family and home and I'll admit it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. 

Saigon President Palace

Dior and I visited the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City. Built by the French as a presidential palace (we call it the Saigon White House) its story that most impacted us was of a North Vietnam tank crashing through its gates on April 30, 1975. This moment symbolically marked the of the end of South Vietnam's government.

Dior in front of the Palace

Presidential sitting room with office behind it.. you can see the Presidents desk chair behind the real ivory tusks!

Presidents living area, with garden.

Looking out from the balcony where many Presidential photos were taken.

Elephant feet given as a gift to the President

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The tank that "ended" the war

Meet the Heat!

Water puppet show in Ho Chi Minh City

 Dior and I visited a water puppet  show that was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The puppet strings are under water so you cant see them. The fish puppets dive in an out of the water and little boat puppets roam the waters. It was a really sweet show that I'm glad we visited on one of our first sightseeing nights :)

Life size puppet

 After the water puppet show we went out to dinner. Each table has a small stove with boiling broth and you order the raw ingredients that you would like to put in to your broth. The soup cooks right at your table!

We went out for drinks and dancing with Dior's teammate David and his girlfriend Christian. Ended up meeting the manager of Blanches bar from Brasil! My new favorite night spot :)

Finally we were able to see the stadium and meet the entire team and staff at the Meet the Heat Fan Night! We had a great time and took plenty of pictures. So nice to see the true fans of the Saigon Heat.

"Xin Chao"= Hello!

We have only been in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for a few days and we have already covered so much ground!

The view of the city from the rooftop of the historical Rex Hotel.

Notre Dame Cathedral in the center of the city.

City Hall

 We were invited to Dior's teammates wedding here in Saigon. The wedding was held at the Grand Palace a gorgeous building with many banquet rooms. The night of their wedding there were many other weddings going on in the other rooms. Outside of the banquet room the bride and groom greet guests and receive their "gifts" of money. We had a great time!

We also went out to dinner with Dior's team and there were women playing these instruments. We've seen these types of instruments at other restaurants but still aren't sure what they're called. They sound so soothing like in your in a spa :)

Last night we went exploring with two other teammates Phillip, David and their WAGs Amanda & Christian. Cheers to starting the trip on a fantastic note!