Last leg of the trip!

My last leg of the trip was in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I only had one full day there, but it was very full and everything I did was fun. Many people had said HCMC was boring compared to Hanoi and less interesting culturally so that was a pleasant surprise.

Got in to HCMC June 1 early evening, after a night train back to Hanoi from Lao Cai, which arrived Hanoi at about 4:30 am, which was a little unsavory to say the least considering that there wasn't anywhere open for a good three and a half more hours. In HCMC, spent the first hour or so searching for a good guesthouse as the ones I saw were all more expensive than in Hanoi. Finally went to Lonely Planet recommended Hong Hoa, $17, but I probably could have gotten it for $15 -- forgot to bargain!! I bargained the first two places I went and got the price down a couple dollars but by the time I got to Hong Hoa I guess I was just ready to put my bag down and get some dinner. If I were to go back with a bigger budget/ less interest in finding good deals (ok, so it's unlikely) I'd probably stay at Saigon Comfort Hotel, which I bargained down to $20. Better decor, bigger and nicer, nicer bathroom. I'd recommend it even for people who are looking mainly for nice/comfort, as the location is great and the alley it's on has a lot of cute little restaurants and seems very local despite being a place where tourists stay. All the places I checked out were off the street Pham Ngu Lao. The place I finally decided on was in "mini hotel alley" which was super cute in terms of nearby restaurants and cafes.

First item on the full day in HCMC was another cooking class, but I forgot to bring my camera!! I went to the Vietnam Cookery Center, which was a little hard to find for my moto driver, even with their printed out directions. Was about $10 more expensive than the place I went in Hanoi, but I loved the one I did in Hanoi and wanted to do another one, so I just did it. It was much fancier than the one in Hanoi, which I didn't need, but the food was a little tastier too which was good. We made spring rolls again, but this time we used a new kind of wrapper that looks kid of like a net, that apparently will keep your spring rolls crispy for up to 6 hours.

This picture gives you an idea of what the wrapper looks like, though the spring rolls we made actually looked a lot better than this.


We ate ours wrapped in a piece of lettuce with some fresh noodles and mint leaves, then dipped in special garlic/ chili dipping sauce. It was delicious. A perfect lesson too in Vietnamese cooking as it was "balanced" in every way - salty, sweet and sour, crispy and soft, green and red, etc.

After the cooking class I went back to the hotel for a quick rest and some iced coffee. Vietnamese coffee is pretty much the strongest coffee you'll ever have, and they usually serve it with condensed milk, which i ask for on the side.

That is not a spoon coming out of the condensed milk!

I walked from my hotel to the War Remnants Museum, which was interesting. Outside the museum they have planes, tanks, guns and bombs used by the US military in the Vietnam War, and replicas of the "tiger cages" that Viet Cong prisoners were kept in. Lots of info on the prison for Viet Cong on Phu Quoc island that I had previously only heard of as an untouched paradise for beaching and relaxing, so that surprised me a bit. Inside they had smaller remants including bullets, bombs, grenades, and lots of pictures, with a large exhibit on the birth defects caused after the war by Agent Orange. Didn't take any pictures though.

Next I went to the local market in search of some of those spring roll wrappers, which was quite a challenge with no language ability, but I managed to find them eventually with use of pictures I'd taken on my phone and gesturing.

After that I went home for some spring roll hors deuvres (obssessed? yes) and a soda.

Was happy that most places throughout SE Asia have plain soda, one of my favorites. This cafe sold it with some lime and sugar for 15,000 dong (about 90 cents?). Didn't add the sugar of course but the lime idea was tasty.

Dinner was Indian food, which was pretty much my favorite food while I was in SE Asia.

Indian food for dinner

The next morning I caught a 6:15 AM flight out of HCMC headed back to the US. Cool thing was it was only the second day that Northwest was running this flight, and on the 757, which had about 35 rows in coach times 6 seats per row, there were only about ten passengers!

Unsure whether to be excited or grumpy at the idea of being on an empty plane at 6:15 am.

Missed connection in Detroit due to luggage taking forever to arrive, but made it home to Boston by 7, where Mum and Sis were waiting to pick me up!

Loved my trip and am already planning where to go when I go back! Potential places include:
Malaysia again - Perhentians and Malaysian Borneo. Indonesia - Sumatra, Bali, and Borneo. Back to Thailand for more Ko Phi Phi, check out Ko Lanta and stay at Bottle Beach on Ko Pha Ngon, go to Chiang Mai and do some trekking in Northern Thailand, do more exploring in Cambodia and some in Laos, and Phu Quoc island in southern Vietnam. Other suggestions?