Vietnam – Day 12 – Off to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

Today was a lazy day. Breakfast and a 7:30 workout at the gym. Back to the hostel and out for lunch.

I don’t believe I mentioned it before, but breakfasts have all been free…included with the hostel prices. I know, hard to believe when the happy hour is free and the accommodations are very comfortable with air conditioning and a free towel. Some hostels even have soap and shampoo dispensers in the shared bathroom. Speaking of bathrooms, I thought there would be conflicting times of use. Not once did this occur. Boy was I surprised.

Lunch was nice and casual. The streets were not filled with the typical hordes of tourists. I didn’t eat heavy as usual in anticipation of Saigon food.

Today I spent time at the tailor and the bike shop. The tailor is a family owned and operated shop, as most must be, on the outskirts of the old city. They probably don’t see as much action as the shops on the epicenter of the city. The sister, Thủy, runs the storefront. Her sister and brother make the garments. Thủy is very sensitive to the quality of her product and rejected a shirt for Angie back to her brother and sister. This resulted in multiple trips to her store, and every time she would go to the store next door and buy a bottle of water for me. This was my last stop at her store to pick up the garments. Tony the Tailor is one of a few shops that made items from pictures and measurements. I am sure Angie will be happy with them.

After that I swung by the bike shop. Cuong’s partner here in Hoi An, Thanh, bought the bike back as agreed and paid me in US dollars. This is not common as most times you get paid in VND. We proceeded to have a few beers and chatted. These visits to all of these shops kept me super hydrated! I told him I was going to to catch a Grab from the shop to the airport and he said, “F@*k that. I will call a taxi for you. It will be much cheaper.” It’s funny, Thanh drops the f-bomb a lot, and the way he says it is slurred like he’s has a couple of six packs.

Well the taxi arrived and picked me up. It was 1/2 of what Grab would have been. Also, it really wasn’t a taxi but a nice clean private car that drove me 45 minutes to and through Da Nang to the airport.

Being in a car gave me a whole new perspective. I wasn’t on guard anymore: dodging bikes and pedestrians, or manuevering around cars and trucks. I took some pictures of the various ways people transport things on their motorbikes. We passed roaming cows and water buffalo but I didn’t have time to snap photos. They we’re all spread out, eating grass along side the road, strolling in the rice paddys and napping on the dry patches around the rice paddys. We passed Marble Mountain and all of the marble sculpture stores. We passed numerous high end resorts, many of which are still being constructed. We passed the Dragon Bridge. I got a distant photo of it.

The airport is medium sized new and clean. Check-in was easy. My flight was delayed an hour so I chatted with a Vietnamese couple that now lives in Topeka Kansas. I know, what other Topeka could there be. We commiserated on the cold snowy weather in our home towns. They were there for Tết with their extended family of more than 20 people. The told me how beautiful it was during Tết and how next time I come back I should come before the holiday and stay longer. We will see what Angie says about that.

They also gave me an insight I did not know about pho. The southern pho is different from the northern and I have to try it. They also said the street food was much better than Hanoi. How is that possible? I guess I will see.

The flight was about an hour and a half. From the airport I caught a bus to my hostel. I should note that I booked these hostels the day before I arrive at them. I estimate my total lodging cost for the entire trip is around $100. The food was probably not much more.

The bus took about 20 minutes to get to my destination. As it drove to the city center I noticed dramatic differences between the north and south. In HCMC there was a lot of neon, LEDs, billboards and new construction. It looked like a relatively new city with progressive architecture, trendy restauants, and young hipsters on scooters. And there were are a lot more cars and no scooters hauling stuff in haphazard makeshift manners.

The bus dropped me about 5 blocks from my hostel. It was a short walk through a seedy area that fringed on the area that seems to have a lot of action.

I checked into my hostel, dropped my pack and immediately went out to eat. The food was good but a little more expensive than the north. Still cheaper than the US.

Tomorrow I explore Saigon.