Six Days Since Saigon

We recently returned to Manila from Saigon, Vietnam (currently Ho Chi Minh City) where we stayed for six days. Unlike Bangkok, we were able to arrive in Saigon in the morning, and have nearly the entire day to look around instead of wasted on travel.

Cool things so far about Vietnam:
Girls dressed up on motorcycles (masks, jackets, and long gloves to avoid the sun)
Green Space
Buddhists
Limes
Coffee
An Actual Cuisine (two even: French and Vietnamese)
Cashiers that pick out the proper Dong notes for you when you're fumbling in line at the grocery
Waitresses that helpfully point out a proper bill with which to tip them
A people that embrace their culture
Pastry
Lots of War memorbilia for sale (cash in on that war guys !!)

Day 1 - We landed at HCMC international at roughly 11AM Manila time (Saigon is only an hour behind us), and met our driver who took us straight to the Rex Hotel. Lots different from Manila just in the trip from the airport. Having a Communist government in Vietnam they're able to clean up alot of the litter and pollution, even going as far as moving the squatters off of the canals and river banks. I'm not sure, but I think that they were all forced to return to the countryside. At least I want to believe that's where they all are now. Vietnam is a very poor country, but you'd not realize it by spending any time in Saigon. Everyone seems to be bustling about with some purpose. A place to go, something to sell. To be fair there's probably as much hustling as bustling, but still there's an air of purpose to the average Vietnamese that lives in HCMC. The streets and air were both clean enough for us to walk around the district where we were staying (Quan 1). As soon as we got settled in the room we headed out to eat Vietnamese food (the last time we had Vietnamese that was worth telling about was at Pho Pasteur in Cambridge). If you live ANYWHERE near Boston, Massachusetts you owe it to yourself to go to Pho Pasteur as often as possible (We liked the one in Harvard Square the best). That being said Vietnamese food in Vietnam was a special treat. We ate first at a place called 'Cool' (Kinh Bac) on Dong Khoi Street in District 1. I had prawns wrapped in beef, and Misty ate beef and bee molasses (honey we think). For appetizers we had lotus rhizome, peanut, and shrimp salad, and an egg-fritata-like thing that you ate by wrapping a bit of it in a lettuce leaf. And of course Iced Coffee for Misty and a Lemonade for me.

Bellys full we headed back towards the hotel. On the way we bought a couple of the traditional cone hats (pretty sure they're called 'non la' but someone please correct me if I'm wrong), two vietnamese coffee presses for making vietnames coffee (go figure), and some tshirts for family and friends. We dropped our things off and walked to Benh Thanh Market. We found it to be a cross between the markets in Thailand (which we enjoyed a bit more), and Greenhills in Manila. There were lots of booths, and aisles, all indoors. The clothing was all in roughly the same area, and that drifted in to raw cloth and material of every color, pattern, and finish. There were vegetables, fish (dried and fresh), cell phone accessories, lacquerware, and pretty much anything else you might imagine for sale. We bought a purse for Misty, an Ao Dai (it's for Misty to wear, but really it's for Chad; Hubba, hubba), and some lacquerware plates before heading back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel room we took the mid-afternoon shower/nap combo that was to become our standard schedule for the rest of the trip. Out in the morning, back to the hotel for shower and nap, and mass hydration, and then back out for dinner and exploration at dusk.

The first day for dinner we ate at a little place called Restaurant 13. I had prawns steamed in coconut milk, and a beer. Misty had grilled squid and peapods in oyster sauce and garlic and an Orangina. We had coffee and cheescake at a cafe before dinner. Vietnamese coffee is awesome. I'll make a photo of the presses we bought soon, and link it off here.

Day two...