Sunday 19th April
After an early breakfast (sadly, no more delicious carrot cake!), we took a car to Da Nong airport, and then a domestic flight to Ho Chi Minh City - formally known as Saigon. The flight itself was quite quick (10:50 - 12:30) but we were again exposed to numerous bouts of coughing and sneezing. I commented to R that it would be a miracle if we finished the holiday without catching anything. As stated previously, R succumbed shortly after we returned home. Amazingly, I managed to avoid contracting anything, and my immune system is feeling rather smug about that!
Our taxi to La Vela Saigon Hotel managed to drop us off at the wrong entrance and it took a couple of goes before we finally arrived at Reception. Here, it soon became abundantly clear why I prefer small hotels. This one was enormous, and the member of staff checking us in was uninterested and curt to the point of being rude. I suppose if you're that big, with a huge number of guests and business men, you don't have to try as hard. Even the welcome drink seemed uninspiring, or maybe the woman's attitude had just left a bad taste in my mouth.
We knew that we were an hour too early to expect our room to be ready, so asked if they could look after our cases whilst we went out for lunch. She nodded and told us to leave them near the door, along with a pile of other luggage. This seemed like a very bad plan - we hadn't been given a tag, and for all we knew the other cases could have been waiting to be loaded onto a group coach, inadvertently taking ours with them. We ignored her, walked to the other side of Reception and asked someone else. They were far more helpful, placing them safely behind the desk, attaching a label, and giving us a receipt. We thanked them and left, with R muttering loudly about people being incapable of doing their job properly.
It was much hotter in south Vietnam, and the 14 minute walk to Om Kitchen for lunch had us keeping to the shade as much as possible. The route took us via a narrow alleyway and I loved seeing where ordinary people lived, even if we had to keep dodging the motorbikes that appeared suddenly round every bend.
Motorbikes in Vietnam are used as taxis, and you have the option to choose a bike instead of a car on the Grab App. I recall L telling me that she had used them when travelling and I was horrified at the time. I was even more horrified having now seen them in practice, weaving in and out of the crazy amounts of traffic. A few days before our holiday a young girl, taking a gap year before uni, had been killed when she fell off the back of a motorbike. My heart went out to her parents who had to fly to Vietnam to collect her and organise organ donation.
Om Kitchen had a huge selection of food to choose from. After much deliberation, I chose Lion's Mane Pho with tofu balls, along with jasmine tea with mandarin. R opted for Abalone mushrooms with rice, and ginger tea. It was excellent. I had never tried Lion's mane mushrooms before but they were lovely, with a very meat-like texture. The restaurant itself was very pretty but incredibly hot, and we exchanged sympathetic looks with an Indian family who seemed to be struggling with the heat more than we were.
After lunch, we walked back to our hotel, passing by Tan Dinh Catholic Church on the way, and were given the keys to our room on the 15th floor. It was definitely the worst hotel of our trip, which was rather sad given that it was the last one that we stayed in. The room was overheated and we struggled to adjust the air conditioning, the mattress was lumpy, and the bathroom was separated from the bedroom by a glass wall necessitating fiddling with an automatic curtain to maintain modesty. I suppose the anonymity of a large hotel was nice but it just seemed as if it had no soul.
View from our room on the 15th floor:
After booking our flights pre-holiday and working out our itinerary, R decided that it would have been nice to have had a couple of extra days. An extra day in Hoi An would have been nice to explore the paddy fields and check out the local beach. In Ho Chi Minh City, we had a limited amount of time and had to choose between visiting the Cu Chi tunnels (the underground network used by Viet Cong soldiers during the Vietnam War), 2 hours from the city centre, or seeing the sights and a show at the opera house within the city itself. Deciding that 4 hours in another car to see the tunnels was probably a little much after all the travelling we had already done, we opted to stay in the city. We consoled ourselves with the thought that we couldn't do everything, and that 2 weeks is usually my limit for being away from home. Tickets to the AO acrobatic show were booked for the following night and we had a little rest before heading out into the city again.
The pink jewel that is Tan Dinh Church. In 1874 a Catholic missionary group was established in the area under the leadership of Father Eveillard. He supervised the construction of the church in 1876, and set up an orphanage and boarding school next door. He also established a religious publishing house, where he trained disadvantaged children. He was beloved by the local community and is buried under the Nave.
3 buildings showcasing French architectural influence are conveniently grouped together. The Central Post Office, with its green painted wrought iron and barrel-vaulted hall, is still fully functional. As well as containing gift shops, it is a popular location for graduation photoshoots.
Across the street from the post office lies the Notre Dame Cathedral. Unfortunately, it has been buried beneath scaffolding since 2017, with a renovation completion date set at 2027. It is loosely modelled on the Paris version of the same name. It would have been nice to look inside but, being Sunday, there was a mass taking place.
500m away, stands the Saigon Opera House. We had tickets for the AO show to be performed here the following evening. Part circus, part live music and cultural showcase, we were really looking forward to it.
A beloved tradition in the streets of Saigon is the 'Caphe bet' culture. Ca phe meaning coffee and bet to sit cross legged or squatting. Customers are provided with small plastic stools or just plastic mats to sit on whilst enjoying a cup of coffee with friends or strangers. Other drinks and snacks are also available. We decided to try it out, sitting on a small plastic mat (shoes removed) opposite the cathedral. There were plenty of young people about, chatting away. Despite the fact that there seemed to be little inter-mat conversation happening, I decided that it was a little samey just chatting to each other whilst sipping our iced tea, so struck up a conversation with 2 girls on an adjacent mat. One of them was luckily studying English at college, so the conversation flowed easily. The other, whose English was also very good, was reading business and administration. Feeling my age, I asked if the caphe bet was mostly for younger people. Smiling they explained that that was usually the case, with youngsters meeting up at the weekend to catch up with friends. They were too busy with their studies during the week. They were very polite and reassured us that our age wasn't a problem. Apparently, they liked our English accents!
Saying goodbye, we wandered off looking for somewhere to eat dinner. By happy chance we came across a street of book shops, many of the books being in English. Despite a thorough search, there was nothing that took our fancy but it was very lovely browsing.
Happy Cow finally led us to a vegan restaurant. We passed another man on the street coughing copiously. So much so, that I felt it spray my arm as I passed! When we found the restaurant I immediately went to the loo and gave my arm a good scrub in the wash basin. With my arm less of a hotbed of pathology, we ordered some vegetable fried rice and steamed Vietnamese spinach. I had a drinky coconut and R some tamarind juice. It was all simple and delicious but we were again sprayed with pathogens when the waiter took our payment and coughed all over us! Giving up for the day, we returned to the hotel, had a bath and read in bed.
Monday 20th April
Breakfast was on the 25th floor and I became thoroughly over-excited when they handed me a plate containing a GF roll and 2 cakes. Sadly, excitement soon turned to disappointment when it turned out that you couldn't even cut them with a knife. I think they had been stored in the freezer for too long and had dried out completely. The rest of breakfast was a little underwhelming, but the view and numerous plants were lovely. Not so lovely was the tank of crabs with their claws tied up - we sat as far away from them as possible.
After breakfast, we went up to the roof to check out the infinity pool. I wasn't keen - apart from it triggering my vertigo, there were speakers situated by the poolside bar and wall to wall sunbeds, some already saved with towels.
First stop of the day was the War Remnants Museum. R enjoyed the tanks positioned outside and I was amazed at the sheer size of a Chinook helicopter. We see them in the sky at home occasionally, but I had never seen one close up before.
The museum was spread over several floors and, understandably, the version of events was a little one sided. An outside section held information on various torture methods employed. 'Tiger Cages' were a type of cell constructed of barbed wire, used to confine prisoners in groups. They were stripped of their clothes, locked inside and left to starve for several days.
Inside, there were photos of the effects of Agent Orange and war crimes. Some visitors were taking photos of the photos on display. It seemed a tad tasteless. Outside there was a large Peace Gong made out of an old bomb. I gave it a ring and was extremely embarrassed when it turned out to be much louder than I had expected! As I said, the museum only gave one side of the Vietnam War story, and it would have been nice to read more about it before our visit in order to get a balanced view.
Leaving, we walked to a cafe for a mango smoothie (me) and a beer (R), before taking a Grab car to the Jade Emperor Pagoda. Built in 1909 in honour of the supreme Taoist god (the Jade Emperor or King of Heaven), his statue presides over the main sanctuary. Other characters from Buddhist and Taoist lore are represented by papier-mache figures. A worship chamber off to one side contains a statue of the Goddess of fertility and protector of women. 12 midwives surrounding her are believed to care for the child from the time they are in utero until birth - each being responsible for a specific part of the child's body - feet, hands, eyes etc. Couples pray for a child, and pregnant women for an uneventful pregnancy and healthy birth. Another chamber allowed you to ring bells around the necks of horse statues for health and good luck. I rang them vigorously!
A creaking staircase leads up to the roof area. As we had removed our shoes, R managed to burn his foot on the hot tiles - maybe he should have rung the horse bells too?! The roofing tiles were beautiful, as were the bonsai trees in pots.
We found a veggie restaurant for lunch and had fried tofu with lemongrass and braised seaweed rolls with vegetables. I had a lemongrass lemonade and R had sugarcane juice with chia seeds. It was all incredibly cheap but I had my doubts about the braised nori. Sure enough, I spent the rest of the day feeling as though I had been 'glutened'! Apart from the copious quantities of food on the cruise, this was the first time this holiday that my stomach had bothered me. I had been very lucky so far.
We returned to the hotel to cool down and check in for our return flight home the following day. R popped briefly up to the roof to check out the swimming pool but returned quite quickly - it being as loud and crowded as we had suspected earlier.
Suitably cool, we returned to the Catholic Church in the hope of seeing inside. Sadly, it was closed, so we went back to the Central Post Office, where the clock showing London time succeeded in making me homesick. 2 weeks of travel and a glutened stomach meant I had had enough at this point. I was ready to come home.
Barrell-vaulted roof of the post office:
We walked to the Opera House and sat on the steps for a while, waiting for the show. Spotting some people emerging from a car looking very smart, I had a sudden thought that we were underdressed again. Fortunately, more people arrived and it became clear that we weren't the only scruffy ones!
A welcome drink of lemongrass and peach tea:
The show was excellent, with traditional music, acrobats twirling on bamboo coconut boats, and small baskets used as frisbees that the people jumped over in unison.
Afterwards, we walked by the City Hall with a statue of Uncle Ho waving, and headed to a restaurant for supper. Our route managed to take us through the red light district (or Syphilis Street, as I named it), with bored looking young girls sitting outside touting for business.
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