ho chi minh city

Argh - early morning and really only so we could put the luggage out by 0630, which means you pretty much needed to be ready - right? After I had everything crammed back into my bag, I went off for breakfast. Everyone raved about the breakfast the day before, I had forgone the breakfast for yoga.  

I had an omelet as the noodle soup guy did not understand the phrase - noodle soup or pho. Apparently Vietnamese is all about inflection and the word pho actually has 8 different meanings depending on how you say it - varying from noodle soup to old ladies to shoe. Omelet was fine and my green tea was actually chamomile. This very beautiful hotel has some issues. We were told that Hilary Clinton had been there last week and I assume she had hot water in her shower.

Then we were off to the airport and settled ourselves into executive lounge, which was just as nice as the hotel and I could have had noodle soup, but I was full. Crammed onto the plane, I switched places with Dallas and sat next to the young Philadelphia's. An hour later, we were in Ho Chi Minh City (aka. Saigon).  

We met our local guide, Kiet, pronounced Kit. I liked him immediately and he proceeded to tell us his life story. He's 6th generation Chinese. He did not know his father because he died young, but when his father had been 14, his mother sent him with his younger brother to Saigon because their village in the Mekong Delta was controlled by the VietCong and she did not want to lose him to them. His father became a doctor and worked with the Americans to set up hospitals and was killed when he was just a little. He cannot always remember him, but he goes to the shrine to remember.

After a short break (where almost everyone - not me - went to the Hard Rock cafe), we got back in the bus and headed to a 10th century Chinese shrine. It was like a system of courtyards and all along the edges were these incredible 3 dimensional ceramic figures depicting village life, as they were all homesick, and this was a place to remember.

We all got to put up our own curly wurly incense and our secret wish. The wish paper only lasted a day or so, but the incense takes over a week to burn down and they believe that standing under them and being hit by the ash is good.

After this, we went to a market and it was insane! But we all managed to stay together AND no one got run over, by a scooter or a lady carrying a bowl of hot soup. Ho Chi Minh City is amazing, there are lights everywhere and it is beautiful. Since it was 

Friday, lot of families were in the park or hanging around watching the lights.

For dinner, we went to the best Vietnamese place in Saigon. It was down an alley and up some stairs - I did not see an actual name on it. The Canadians asked me if I wanted to do family style, and we proceeded to order spring rolls, fish cooked in banana leaf, pork hot pot in caramel sauce, shrimp hot pot, beef with lemongrass, stir fried vegetables, and chicken curry. It was all very good and probably the best food we have had so far and that is saying something.

One more trip through the streets in our giant bus and then it was time for bed. We were told to be downstairs and ready to leave at 7 with old clothes, a hat and bug spray on - I immediately knew, I was NOT doing that.