Can you spot Stephen the trekker?

Ho Chi Minh City parks are often in disrepair and littered with garbage. Some are even known to be places where drug addicts hang out at night. There are larger parks beyond the city limits that charge an entrance fee, but that still does not guarantee quality.

Today, we went to Tao Dan Park which is one of the newer parks in town. There were flowers and butterflies, thick green blades of grass, gigantic towering trees, and tiny sparrows. What a contrast to playing at home or at concrete playgrounds. Strangely, Stephen seemed to like hiking in large patches of loose dirt more than walking on paved walkways.



Dragon topiary at the main entrance of the park.


Roosters for the new year.


Brick temple with Bodhisattva motif.


Landscape Workers


Adjacent School



Portable Toilets
The one on the left is 500 Dong (about 3 cents USD) for pee pee.
The one on the right is 1000 Dong for poo poo.
I don’t know how they enforce what people do once they get inside.
Couldn’t you pay 500 Dong but still do a #2 in there?

ETA: Marv says he will go inside the porta-potties when he goes to the park next time to see if there’s any difference.