Wednesday, half day before cruising again
Sit down breakfast notable only for the choice of fruits available. Nice collection of local choices but missing fresh jackfruit; was quite good last evening.
In 2007 stayed at the Majestic hotel, only about 1 km from here. Wandered over there after a nice walk up the main colonial area streets. On one of them a great find: Kinokiniya. QB acquired a reasonable amount of stationary. Yes, a great find.
At the Majestic in their coffee area.
Successful street shopping as well, t-shirt, and coffee.
Final thoughts after leaving Vietnam and heading towards Bangkok. Apart from the obvious growth (building and prices) since my last visit the corruption seems to have increased significantly. Two guides told us similar stories. I doubt I would have heard either story in my previous visit.
Both were University trained, both spoke decent English. One was trained as in chemistry the other in the humanities. Both wanted to teach school; neither could get a job as they had no connections and not enough money for a bribe.
Thursday, cruising all day. QB chose to work out at gym. I enjoyed being a bum, time enough to return to sweating back home.
When I went back to the room QB was napping; so much for the gym.
Boog's Blog 
Ah – Kinokuniya.Is there a large box of items acquired there to be shipped home?
Interesting update on corruption; found this on Wikipedia: “Overall, Vietnam is characterized by corruption, a weak legal infrastructure, financial unpredictability and conflicting and negative bureaucratic decision-making. Petty corruption has decreased, while high-level corruption has increased.[1] …facilitation payments are widespread when dealing with frontline civil servants.[2]
Acquired items were small so no shipping required as yet. Easier on cruise of course. Good research. Looks like the local guides in full agreement.
Of course she was napping. After her vigorous workout at the gym, she was clearly exhausted. How very dare you suggest otherwise!