Day 15: Visiting the Bond villain lair

Highlight of the entire trip so far: visiting the 60's timewarp that is the Independence Palace. It is fantastic - I can't rate this place highly enough as a tourist site, but then we had a particularly entertaining visit.

We arrived about 10am and as usual in Vietnam, we were herded to one side and told that if we wanted to join and english-speaking tour we should wait over there for 10 minutes. Being tourist sheep, we did as bid and waited. A young woman in traditional dress (an ao dai - see how I'm learning?!) came over and said she would be our tour guide. Either it is not a popular attraction or else we just struck lucky, but we were the only two on this tour and it was really good. Her english was good and the information she told us about the palace was really interesting.

The palace is the symbolic site of the reunification of the two halves of Vietnam after the American war, as on April 30, 1975, two tanks stormed the palace and reclaimed it for a reunited Vietnam, signalling the end of the war in effect. The two tanks are still there in the grounds, which is normal for any Vietnamese museum as there is a fascination with having military hardware on show wherever possible, especially if it is captured American tanks/aircraft/guns/etc.

Inside the palace, it is still exactly as it was left when it was stopped being used by the southern Vietnamese president in the 70's. On the ground floor this isn't so evident, as the rooms are fairly traditional in decor, but as soon as you go upstairs to the private rooms of the president and his family it is like stepping back in time. The best room for me was the gambling room with the big round sofa in the middle and the barrel bar - it is a cocktail bar in the corner of the room made to look like a barrel. Very dated, but fab to look at.

However, the real fun part is when you go into the basement. It was made into a split-level bomb-proof shelter, fully functional as a command centre for the president and his advisors. There are still maps on the wall and red telephones and old-fashioned communication equipment. It is almost a living snapshot of what it was like for the president in the 70's during the final days of the war.

All this was delight enough, but to add to the memory, midway through our tour we were asked if we would agree to be filmed for the news. Vietnam tv were filming about the palace as part of the build-up to the annual celebrations of 30 April, reunification day. We agreed, although neither of us felt particularly up to the task, given how hot and sticky we were and how slow our brains were working as a result. Still, we've 15 minutes to use up according to Andy Warhol, so we said yes anyway. The questions were run through first, but then when the camera started to roll, the interviewer changed them, so my mind went blank and I may have burbled my answers for all I know. Then the cameraman followed us round the rest of the tour, watching our reactions and making us look like we were taking pictures of things so he could get a good angle. It was fun, but a bit odd, and I suspect it won't be winning any awards for gritty journalism!

After the independence palace we decided to head back to the main market in the city and have lunch there. This was quite brave for us, as we've been quite wussy after the tummy bugs and haven't tried too much street food. We wandered in and as usual we were hassled within seconds to come and eat at various stalls. We picked one at random and were seated on the tiniest plastic seats, almost in the main walkway. I think maybe it is a form of fun for the stallholders to put the westerners on the tiny seats instead of the counter seats, which are taller, but less comical.

Having perched ourselves, we ordered our food - they did veggie so I was ok, and JP had a wide range of options so he was spoilt for choice. The food was good and it was good fun eating there. I could gaze around me at all the weird and wonderful stalls with foodstuffs on them, including more varieties of fruit than I think I've ever seen before, and a wide range of dried fish that makes your eyes water when you breath in, so strong is the smell. So far JP hasn't shown signs of wanting to try it, but I'm not sure he will. Even he has limits to how adventurous his tastebuds can be.

After lunch we did a bit of shopping in the market. I wanted some vest tops, so I thought I'd try my haggling skills out. Now either they are very good or very bad, because the first stallholder I tried them out on gave up and walked away, but I managed to knock the second one down to something more reasonable.

A few more items and it was time to stop at another food stall for dessert, this time for ché. This is a really weird drink/sweet dessert that we've seen all over Vietnam. It seems to consist of jelly sweets and beans (legumes, not the jelly sort), mixed with lots of crushed ice and coconut milk/juice. Sounds vile, tastes really good.

Headed back to the hotel for a break from the heat, and then it was out for dinner, and then we went for ice-cream to Fanny's again. On the way back, we saw some dancing in the pavilions in the park opposite our hotel, so we stopped to watch and had a go ourselves. Lila would be proud of our efforts, although I know she would not be impressed at some of the footwork on display from the dancers! Further on in the park were lots of people playing a game we hadn't seen before. Everywhere here the street sellers have a type of toy available which looks like a mini-concertina of plastic with feathers coming out of the top. It is apparently called shuttlecock and the kids play it by kicking it back and forth to each other like the old hackysack game that was played at home. It was really fun to watch them play in teams and groups so we sat down for a while, enjoying the coolness of the evening.

After about two minutes we were spotted and that was the end of watching. Two different groups of young vietnamese people came over to ask if they could talk to us to practise their English. It was great fun talking to them and they were all so nice and interested in anything we could tell them about life at home, and answered our questions too. All the Vietnamese are like this, and it has made our trip here to be able to meet so many friendly people.