Ho Chi Minh City
Full day in HCMC/Saigon (actually no one calls it Ho Chi Minh City, it gets used for official things, but everyone still calls it Saigon). I’ve lost count of what day we’re up to on this trip, but it was Thursday (I think).
Had breakfast with the few remaining members of our tour, same wretched hotel breakfast made palatable by the pho. L still not feeling great, very full of flu, so went back to bed soon after. She left me in charge of procuring some souvenir bowls at the market, so a-wandering I went, crossing the roads without fear, entering the large market of haggling doom with a brave face.
It wasn’t so bad, managed to brush off the vendors who tired to grab me (Vietnam, like Morocco, seems to have this thing where the first customer is a “lucky” customer, at least that’s what they tell you — I think they mean first customer lucky if they leave with anything left in their wallet). Hit the place L was checking out bowls yesterday, today the guy wasn’t going anywhere near those prices — L had them down to 540000, this guy wasn’t going below 700000. Still, saw what he was offering then tried a couple of other stalls, again they started hi but when I said other guy offer 300000 for small bowl set they came down. Couldn’t get any movement on the large bowls — L got them to 270000, I couldn’t get them below 400000. Also scored some groovy little buddha with animals “chess” pieces (they only sell 12 in a set so not sure how that works for chess).
Back to hotel for final pack and it was a taxi to the intercontinental asiana, very swish with baggage concierge and two young women opening the front door for you. Thanks to L’s member status, we were whisked away for private check-in, sweet lemongrass iced tea, and then escorted to our room.
L promptly ordered some room service lunch (her serve was enough for two) and hit the bath, while I went downtown for a shave and foot massage at Temple Leaf Spa down the road. Good service, a little pricier than other towns (but cheaper than the hotel) and made my quads (sore from the squatting to get through the Cu Chi tunnels) feel much better.
Also had a bit of a wander around the neighbourhood, we’re in a fairly swanky end of town, Hard Rock Cafe is next door, US Consulate General around the corner, and a couple of other swish hotels close by. Made sure I walked a little ways from hotel before shopping.
L totally flaked when I got back, so I headed up to the Executive lounge for some free food, drink, and to sort out a bit of my email backlog (laptop then did its overheating trick so had to stop and just eat and drink). Had a booze free day, just water and watermelon juice (all the wonderful taste of watermelon without the pesky seeds). Also read reports of some anti-Chinese rioting but have seen nothing of this in HCMC so no worries there).
A good relaxing day. Only one more full day in Saigon then it’s back to transit land (and the lovely Changi airport and duty free booze).