For our last weekend of the trip, we were given a “free weekend” from the company, which of course we filled up pretty quickly! The recap from Friday and Saturday is below…I will describe Sunday in another post.

Friday: After a productive work-day in the morning, we took a break in the afternoon to check out Ho Quyen – an arena built in 1830 that was used for fights between elephants and tigers. The elephants (represented the royalty) and the tigers (which were de-clawed and “de-fanged”, representing the commoners) were set to an unfair battle for the Emperor’s entertainment. In each case, the battles were clearly fixed, resulting in a valiant elephant winner (subliminally squashing any signs of resistance from the people). The fights took place annually, with the last one occurring in 1904. You have to use your imagination for this one, but for not having any renovations for over 150 years, the arena is still impressively standing intact.

Nearby, there was a temple for elephant worship:

After this trip, we came back and joined the rest of the team for a pleasant dinner at Le Caramel, a Western, Italian, Vietnamese restaurant and took a lengthy late-night swim at the pool.

Saturday: 3 Words.”Treat Yo Self”

(Ref: Parks and Recreation“Treat Yo Self” ) Basically, Saturday was a much-deserved day of relaxation, pampering, and eating! We spent the day at a nearby resort and swam in both the pool and the lovely South China Sea. A few of us (myself included) received high quality massages in the picturesque suites and had a few fresh juice cocktails. I was too busy relaxing to take a lot of pictures…but here is a glimpse of the gorgeous resort:

For dinner, one of our team’s translators graciously invited us over for dinner. There is a significant difference between home-cooked Vietnamese food and the food we are served at restaurants. The home-cooked meals are more flavorful, fresh, and cooked with a lot more heart =)

  The dinner was amazing. The resort was  amazing. All in all, Saturday was one of my most favorite days of the trip!