Today was packed with adventure.  To get the day started off, I woke up a little early and ate breakfast.  My friend said he was interested in exploring the city with me, so I gave him a call after I was all ready.  I found out that he slept in and was not ready yet.  Well that was not a problem, so I killed about 45 minutes waiting for him to get moving.  We jumped in a cab and took off to go on a tour of the old Presidential Palace.  We wandered around the grounds and he gave me insight into different things that happened back in 75.  He still remembers where he was and what he was doing during major points of the war.  It is a great benefit to be able to talk to someone about history when they lived through it.  We went through all the rooms that we could and some we probably should not have (oops).  Then we headed out into the town.  We walked around Notre Dame Cathedral and then visited the Post Office.  Both buildings are really old.  We continued walking around and I almost got in trouble for trying to take a picture of the American Consulate (later I was told not to take a picture of city hall either).  We continued walking around and he continued to tell me about events that happened here and there.  He showed me where he used to play soccer and ride his bike.  We headed back over to the chinese restraunt we ate at a few days ago.  This time a bunch of people from our office over here showed up.  They also brought a fish back from the island and had the restraunt cook it for us.  I finally found something that I really don’t like to eat over here…..chicken feet.  Other than that, we had our second peking duck of the trip, the mackeral from the island and some dim sum.  Everyone wanted to continue to hang out, so they took us to a tourist park in a different section of the city.  It was fun and I got to see lots of people getting wedding pictures taken there.  Then I asked people I was with if they had their pictures taken there and they had as well.  After a few hours walking around they decided it was time for dinner again.  There is a restraunt that was close by that I have been to before that we went too.  Pretty much the only thing on the menu is duck.  All sorts of different ways.  Duck is ok, but by now, this was the third meal of duck I have had in just a few days.  The good thing was this was not peking duck, it was roasted, spicy, in a soup, grilled and one other way that I didn’t recognize.  Everyone needed to get home, so we headed back to the hotel.  We tried to get to the market in time to do some shopping, but it closed right before we got there.  There were some vendors on the street, but it was mostly food or clothing.  We made the trek back to the hotel and I went to the gym and the sauna.  I tried out the steam room, but it smelled like rice and I could not breath.  Now I am listening to the city go crazy.  Apparently Vietnam won a football game in the SEA Games 2009.  Kind of like a mini olympics/world cup.  I hope this doesn’t make it hard to sleep, but with 50000 scooters revving their motors, beeping their horns, and their riders screaming, it is pretty loud.