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.