Breakfast this morning brings sunshine and an empty balcony, as we get there before the group of business men, so I sneak out to take some pictures.
I have my next dentist appointment today, so I’m still kind of leaning towards the softer foods. I go for the egg drop-like soup again, and find that some of the cold offers have changed. The rice pudding-like dish has changed to rice noodle rolls that look like a knitted type of fabric. I have glass noodles (my favourite), a spring roll, an okra, I test the fish balls out, have a siu mai and a sweet potato. I grab two wedges of white “fruit” (I mean, it’s on the fruit tray, surely it’s a fruit?), which is very cruncy (think raw potato) and tastes like nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not sweet, not sour, just only crunchy. Must be good for my teeth, then?
Today we’ve decided we’re going to do the tourist thing. No, we’re not taking a two hour bus tour to the Mekong Delta, nor are we cramming our bodies into the tunnels used during the Vietnam war, there’s not enough bug spray in the world that would protect me from that type of elemental exposure!
We are doing the CitySightseeing hop on hop off bus! The receptionist at the hotel helps us with the tickets, and we head down the road to our nearest stop.
We hurry upstairs to join the only other four travellers on today’s morning bus. Because it’s still early, the temperature is ok (for now). We drive through those massive trees from yesterday.
The only planned stop we have today, is the Binh Tay market, near Saigon’s Chinatown. We hop off, in the middle of a street, and have to weave in between mopeds and motorbikes to get to the entrance. This place is just as packed as the Ben Thanh market close to our hotel, but in a square building with a square plaza in the middle, which forces a different type of organization, as well as a confusing sort of aesthetic, as all four entrances and exits look identical from in the middle of the plaza…
Maylin is soon to complain and want to go home, so that’s our first clue it’s time for a snack break. We let a couple of vendors lure us in with tempting beverages and snacks. Just like Saturday’s experience at the other market, the vendors all work together. If you sit down with the juice vendor, the next door (or best friend) food vendor will offer food to your customers. So we have some smoothies and share some snacks.
It’s getting hotter, and we still need to make it back closer to the hotel, have a real lunch and I’d like to brush my teeth before my dentist appointment at 3pm. We figure out that we can grab the next hop on hop off bus, which should be here any minute. Joe manages to grab some treats from an old lady vendor right in front of the market, and we bring these onto the bus.
We got back onto the bus, this time the upper deck was half inside and air conditioned! We chose to sit inside, but I did venture outside to snap this picture:
When the tour bus stopped at the end stop, which is also the first stop, we switched buses to get all the way home (2nd stop on their route). As we were pulling away from the curb, Joe realizes that there are lots of restaurant options close to the stop we were just at, so what do we do? Get off the bus at our home stop, and fight traffic to walk back to the previous stop…
Once back across the big street, we found a restaurant and ordered some lunch. I ordered the vegetarian banh mi, because I still have a fear of stringy meat getting stuck between my teeth. Joe ordered the pork banh mi, and the girls ordered a bacon veggie tomato pasta to share.
After lunch, we once again had to cross that busy road to get back across to the hotel side of traffic. Back in the hotel room, we took some time to relax and cool down. I set my alarm and closed my eyes for what I thought would be 30 minutes, but of course, the nice ladies at the dentist office called me half way through to remind me of my upcoming appointment… At 3pm, I was back in the dentist chair.
Joe and the girls went to a café while I was busy, a koi café! There are a couple of different koi cafés in Saigon, and the one they went to had nice wide walkways in between the pools, and you could buy fish food to feed the koi.
I knew none of this of course, until I messaged Joe after my appointment. As I took a step out of the dentist office, the first rain drop hit. Luckily, our hotel is just across the street, but even luckier? There’s a super cute café right next door to the hotel entrance! So because Joe and the girls were still so far away, I decided to sit down for a coffee while I waited, and watched the rain.
Joe messages me from the cab: Maybe go buy some dinner we can eat in the hotel room before it starts to rain. Little does he know, it’s been pouring rain for the last 15 minutes already, there was never a time after the dentist I would have been able to do this… A few minutes later, Joe and the girls arrive, and the nice taxi driver pulls up on what’s technically the wrong side of the street to get them to their destination as dry as possible. They still get wet, but at least don’t have to step in puddles to cross the street!
After we change out of wet clothes, into dry clothes, and unpack our rain jackets, we decide to go straight across the street to our restaurant from the first night, Ruth’s House.
We’re tired after a long day, and are glad for the quick walk across the street back to our hotel. We all head to bed and watch a movie before falling asleep. We’ve never had TVs in our bedrooms, so the whole watching TV from bed feels like a luxury we could easily get used to…