Since North Vietnam was getting a bit chilly for us, we decided to continue our travels further south. We flew into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) where we will spend a few days, then on to a beach town, Nha Trang or Mui Ne. Saigon has a much more appealing landscape with larger city streets and a more developed vibe. Our hotel is quite luxurious with a flat screen tv, personal computer, and jacuzzi bath...all for only $30/night (including breakfast)!!!
Everything we have heard/read about the difficulties of traveling during Tet have been realized. Many stores and restaurants are not open and the large night market has closed for 1 full week. So, day one was a bit quiet. We are staying in a great area, which is close to many sites, so did the tourist thing. We decided to visit the War Remnants Museum. We only had an area map in Vietnamese, so circled a few blocks in search of it. We came across a Frozen Yogurt during our search, which was a welcome treat (and would be enjoyed a few more times in the coming days). We finally found directions and arrived at the museum at closing time (most places close 11:30-1:30 for lunch) and had to return later. Ugh!! It was well worth seeing though. The Agent Orange exhibit was incredibly powerful and we both learned a great deal about the ongoing effects on Vietnamese people. I don't want to get going on the whole thing...but it was a good 2 hours of historical intake.
Sunday was a refreshing day for us. The Sunday market opened late in the morning, but only about half the stalls were open. We also found that many more of the small street shops were beginning to open. We did some wandering through the market and found 2 books for around $7 (they are bound photocopies of originals, but at that price, totally worth it). We enjoyed pedicures in the afternoon (a bit expensive at $3-9), and finished off the evening with a delicious meal at an Aussie owned restaurant. Ok, so it was a very "western" type day, with splurges on comforts for both of us, but it was exactly what we needed. Dinner at Bernie's Pub is definitely worth mention. We had one of the best meals we've had in a month; caesar salad, bbq ribs (Andre), bbq chicken sandwich (Jill) and vanilla bean cheesecake, plus wine and beer :) It cost about triple what a normal meal would be here at $40, but was well worth it.
We have also eaten "street" food a number of times. At around 5pm there is an entire street that fills with numerous family run restaurant stalls. The food is quite inexpensive and fresh...enjoyable once you get past sitting at a little table in the street. We have also found drink stalls serving sugar cane juice. The sugar can stalks are squeezed through a roller a number of times and the juice is collected and mixed with fresh squeezed oranges or strawberries and served over ice. For about 15,000VND (75 cents). Delicious!!
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| Street Pho (This one was good) |
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| Street Restaurant |
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| Sugar Cane Drink press |
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| Pressing the stalks for juice...mmmmm! |
Today we spent a few hours at the mall -- a beautiful high-end mall (unfortunately, window shopping only). We had lunch and spend an hour at the arcade. It was alot of fun...WAY better games than we've ever played in Canada! Also, it was something to do indoors in the A/C. After walking blocks and blocks to find the train station closed, we stopped for a few drinks (including American Beer) and people watching on the patio at Allez Boo.
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| Driving the Arcade Tank |
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| How do I make this horse go?? (That nice man showed me haha!) |
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| And They're Off! (I've got it now) |
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| Snow Boarding |
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| Shreddin' |
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| Ahhh...Coors Light :) |
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| A Vietnamese Coors Light that is |
That's all for now...we are trying to find a way out of Saigon and to the beach!!
