We left Saigon with much hesitation as we found it very difficult to leave Mui Ne, a place we were able to unwind and relax for a few days. We knew we were headed to the big city which meant more noise, more people and more motorbikes but we knew we’d enjoy our time in Saigon as well, just on a different level.
The four of us arrived via bus to Saigon on Feb 19th in the evening. It was a long 5 ½ hour bus ride but the time flew by when we had the opportunity of meeting a fellow traveler from Seattle. He gave us many ideas and things to do in Dubai and told us of his travels thus far as he too is traveling for a year. As soon as we rode into Saigon, you could tell you were in the BIG city by the size of the buildings, the number of the 5 star hotels, the neon lights, the billboard advertisements and the number of people and motorbikes on the streets. We had no idea where we were going to be staying as Chris’ cousin Cha-La was going to pick us up and take us to a hotel that she had booked for us.
Once we met up with Cha La, we were taken to Ha Tranh Hotel in the heart of the city. The rooms were decent and cost us 200,000 dong (that still sounds funny to say) which is equivalent to $14.81 CDN. We spent our first night in Saigon by going for pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) at the hot spot in town – Pho 2000 - where Bill Clinton had visited and had TWO bowls of pho (so Chris decided to have THREE but there was still no picture of Chris on the wall after we left..surprise, surprise!!). Afterwards, we decided to take to the streets of Saigon and went to explore the night market nearby.
The next few days were spent with mamma and pappa Chung along with Krista and Derek, wandering the streets in pure HEAT. Most of the time the temperatures in Saigon hovered around 35-40 degrees. You’d walk outside and stand there for a few minutes and be sweating already. We spent the hottest part of the days in Mamma and Pappa Chung’s hotel room having afternoon tea and goodies as they had brought enough food with them for all of us to last a couple of days. Mamma Chung had a full suitcase of goodies…..boy, were we smiling!! :)
There is not much historical presence in Saigon as the main focus is the daily activities of a big city life. No different than those in other major cities.
We did manage to see a couple sights before the family left us on the 23rd to go back home to Vancouver. :(
1 comment:
the bus going to Saigon was even longer for me as a lady suffering from car sickness sat beside me in the aisle and repeatedly emptied the contents of her stomach into small plastic bags.
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