Serene Saigon

Whew!!! I made it out of the backpack finally! Despite all the traffic, Saigon does have some beautiful parks. There were also many ponds with lotus flowers.

Lotus flowers look a bit like lilypads but they aren't the same.

Lotus flowers have huge buds...

That turn into magnificent flowers!! And the seed pods are edible too. I haven't tried any... Mama says I am a big scaredy-bear!

One are of the park was perplexing to me because.. aren't we in the tropics?? Why are there desert plants here???

I mean, these cacti are beautiful with their flowers but... they are a dry climate plant... and Saigon is definitely a tropical wet climate. Confused little bear!

There were even some palm trees that were more my height...

That is not a plant that you want to meet in the dark when you can't see where you are going!

 You never know what you might find in a park... look it's a ruin! Like the ones in Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

It's only a replica but it is a perfect little-bear size.

This statue looks kind of Indian to me... Mama says that it is probably part of the Cham culture which settled in this area from India way back in the olden days. That makes sense.

Hey - look at that!!! It's Ogopogo... or the Loch Ness monster! A big sea serpent type of thing...

With a big mouth... can you see me in there???

There I am!

There is so much cool stuff in these parks! These guys were guarding the entrance to a small pagoda.

Pretty cool...

Oh hey -a  tiger! Hello kitty!!! Nice kitty??? Hmmmm....

And a water buffalo... I have seen tonnes of these since I got here... the first few were interesting - "Ooooohhhh... water buffalo!!!" And now it's just - "Eh, 'nother water buff". Sort of like if you had never see cows and then came to North America. After a while you'd get tired of cows!

Oh well... maybe not... I take that back... this is a water buffalo too but it is different! I like it - sort of a modern looking one. But the guy on his back looks like he has his hands up to his heads reading a book... maybe a student studying for an exam?? Probably not a good place to do it!

And then we have kitty statues... no wait... those are real kitties!! They were beary skittish though and took off as soon as I blinked at them. Guess they'd never seen a little bear before!

I have to say... I saw this thing from a distance and had no idea what it could be... The blue colour was just too unreal. It couldn't be real!

Oh but it was real. It was a lizard climbing a tree trunk - and those colours are amazing. It turns out it was Mr. Lizard chasing Miss Lizard around the tree trying to convince her that he was the most handsome lizard in the park.

I don't know though... there could be a lot of other lizards out there!

Lots of flowers in the park too - these are hibiscus and they grow everywhere. They are like rose bushes back home. And they come in every shade of colour.

Pink and yellow and salmon and red and fuschia... beautiful!