First Day or G&R -3

The trip here was thankfully uneventful. We left our house at 4:30 Friday morning and arrived at our hotel on Saturday midnight. Something like 36 hours travel time but it passed fairly quickly. Japan Airlines was really good. The service was fantastic with lots of nice hot towels and beverages.
Today we withdrew 4.8 million dongs from the bank. I just like how that sounds.
The traffic here is non-stop. It's a symphony of horns and cyclo/moped engines 24 hours a day. It's surprising but very few people were walking. The mopeds/cyclos are 4 deep in one lane.
We just explored a bit around the hotel today. A lot of stores were closed since it's Sunday. There are a lot of banks and coffee shops - actually more banks than coffee shops. Also a lot of the small side street are themed. Like one street had all sporting good stores and another had 1/2 block of vegetarian restaurants. To picture the weather, it's like the hottest and muggiest day in August where a 2 hr leisurely walk leaves you drenched in sweat.
We're quite comfortable at the Somerset Chancellor Court. It's a very nice hotel. The pool is lovely and there's even a little children's play room and a swing in the court yard.
For dinner we went to a Zen macrobiotic place where one of the locals, an American who's lived here for some years ordered for us. We had pumpkin soup, brown rice with tofu and veggies and buckwheat noodles with tofu and veggies. The whole meal was $7, including tip. It was close to the Notre Dame cathedral and we could hear the choir singing during part of our meal. I hope all of the spiritual forces during our meal keep us healthy.
The Giving and Receiving ceremony is still scheduled for Wednesday. I have a serious case of monkey mind where a gazillion thoughts are just zooming through my head.


Street food. Looks delicious but did not eat here.