Day 32 Ho CHi Minh City (Saigon), VIetnam

Day 32 – His.

Our last day in Saigon – so, you might think we’d be motivated to madly rush around and do all those things we haven’t done – after all when we will be back here again? In theory lots of times – in practice probably never again; after all the world is large and we are small and life is just too short. So, did we rush around? That’s one of those questions that answers itself. If we had rushed around I’d probably be telling you all about that – so, it’s fairly obvious we didn’t. Instead we got up, had breakfast and went back to bed until midday.

That probably seems a real waste. After all we have come half way round the world and we spend it sleeping in a fairly non-descript hotel room. We could have gone to Derby to do that. I have nothing against Derby – it’s the first town name that came to mind. I have been to Derby. I watched Shakespeare in the park there, it was great. But I don’t know a lot of people who would consider it a holiday destination.

So, we were apparently wasting our time and such a lovely waste of time too, nothing better than a good sleep. But, as I have said before, we are travelling for months. What we need every now and then is a rest. If we didn’t rest we would just burn out. Patti and I have a non spoken agreement to laze about at least one day between trips and as we change both tour leaders and countries we sort of consider this to be one of those days. This seemed to fit with the day anyway. Today is Vietnam's national day and although i wouldn't have described the city as quiet it was quieter than any of the other days. Apparently, the Vietnamese only really celebrated their independence day once every five years so there was nothing special to go and see. On the other 4 years we are told, they just go on holiday. As most of the big shops and chains were closed that indeed seems to be true.

Even so, at 12 we felt bored enough to prise ourselves out of our room and go for a walk. We walked up to Notre Dame cathedral and then back to the war museum to get a few photos that we missed being able to take the first time because our camera was broken. Saigon is far more westernised than the other cities in Vietnam and as a consequence we feel more comfortable here. But walking around is a constant reminder that we are in Asia where men are real men if they can catch a siesta balanced on top of their motorcycles and take his woman around town, riding side saddle.

We got caught in a downpour at one in front of the cathedral and spent 20 minutes huddled in a doorway with about 20 other people until the torrent let up enough for us to finish our walk and return to the hotel to wring out our hair and meet the new tour leader.

The new guy is called Limny, a Cambodian, he seems a nice bloke but then we have just met and I am waiting to form an opinion of him. But he is genuine and helpful and has only been a tour leader for 4 years (apparently he was a cyclo driver before that – so I admire the hard work he must have put in to become a tour leader). We were joined by two new guys – both aussies – and Can do has gone! Will life be the same without her?

 

Day 32 – Hers.

After the inevitable pre-tour meeting (the people are friendly, but watch your valuables – you will need to tip him and them and him – keep your shoulders and knees covered, etc.), we all went out to dinner in what Limny called ‘Pub Street’ – a section of the city that caters for tourists.  Vinh had told us about it but we had convinced him – against his better judgement - to take us to less touristy places.  The restaurant was very nice, though, and catered for all tastes.  There was plenty of Vietnamese food but also burgers, enchiladas, pizza, curry, etc. – and you had your choice of Western cutlery or chopsticks.  The prices weren’t as high as we expected, either.  All in all, a pleasant evening.  Our two new friends, Phillip and James, were off to the Ritz bar afterwards, but we headed back to the hotel to pack.

Because we have had three nights at this hotel, I had decided to completely unpack my things when we arrived on Friday.  It was lucky I did – my shampoo had leaked through its plastic bag and soaked half my winter clothes (the ones shoved in the bottom for Nepal). I rinsed them all and they have now dried so I can repack everything...I have now triple wrapped the shampoo.  My pack is also 1 ½ kilos heavier now than when we set off.  I haven’t bought anything (well, not much anyway) so I can only assume that the ingrained sweat and grime account for the extra weight.  Delightful.

Rob does have a bit extra to pack.  We have used most of the leftover dong to buy biscuits.  We have almond chocolate chip cookies for breakfasts, peanut butter –filled Ritz and blueberry ice cream flavour-filled Oreos for lunches and Cream-os and coconut-rice paper crisps for snacks.  I hope he doesn’t drop his bag – or we will have a very strange assortment of crumbs to cover several meals.....