Dinner And A Show

Well, actually more like a show and dinner.  Our hotel was right across the street from the Ho Chi Minh Opera House.  Bun had gotten us tickets to the AO show, a show that turned out to be fantastic.

Use various bamboo props and impressive dancing, the show is reminiscent of a lower-budget Cirque du Soleil show.  Given how much we enjoy Cirque du Soleil, that's definitely "a feature, not a bug" as the kids say.

As someone with no talent, it's amazing to watch what people can do -- there are extraordinary feats of strength, skill, and dancing.

The opera house was built in 1898 by the French, and is a grand building.  Our seats were first row of the top deck, which afforded us great views to watch the show.

We're understandably not allowed to take pictures (the theater is very dark, and flash photography is prohibited, as it could result in injury).

If you want to watch a two minute video from their website, just cut and paste the youtube link below into your browser.  I'm afraid there is no other option to get it on the blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHKWy_7KGNw

People leaving after the show.

Some of the cast, basking in

the glow of their

impressive performance

After the show (which lasted a crisp 62 minutes and didn't drag one bit), most of the rest of the group were taking a taxi to get dinner.  I didn't feel like wandering far from the hotel, so Carol and I wandered around the area looking for an ATM allegedly near the opera house that we never found.  

Instead we ended up walking back toward the Cathedral, where we knew for certain there is an ATM.  In our unsuccessful search for the first ATM, we ended up walking six extra blocks, but it helped push my step count well over 10,000, so I had that going for me.

The lights of Ho Chi Minh City.

On our walk-about, we spied a Korean BBQ restaurant.  Since we had never been to one, we decided to take a break from a steady diet of SE Asian food.  Don't get me wrong -- we enjoyed every meal we ate, but every so often you need a change.  It was a nice change of pace.  

Our Korean BBQ dinner.