Hoi An to Saigon

After my first successful non-Vietnamese breakfast so far (the cook came out to confirm that I did not, indeed, want my eggs flipped), we decided to fork up the $13 for a taxi back to the Danang train station the next morning. Having braved the throngs of locals getting a bit shove-y and waving handfuls of cash through the windows at the tellers the day before to get tickets, we had a good hour and a half at the train station to relax and load up on snacks for the 16 hour ride.

Saigon Train station

Chip chip?

The train was pretty shabby, but comfortable enough. We had the 4-person sleeper car to ourselves for the first 6 hours or so - plenty of time to burn through several episodes of Six Feet Under (we're about a decade late on that one). Other than waking up at a train stop in the middle of the night with a brief moment of oh-crap-what-time-is-it-and-where-are-we panic (we were in Nha Trang), the trip went pretty smoothly, with a bit of sleep for us both.

4 bunk sleeper

I sort-of fit

There are worse ways to spend a rainy afternoon than watch  South Vietnam pass by from a train window

The available dinner on the train was a little questionable - at least the rest of that little bird was tasty

We rolled into Saigon around 6:00am with the city seemingly already on the move for the day. We settled down at a small cafe for a cup of coffee and to get our bearings. We declined the persistent motorbike taxi drivers who offered to pick us up (not sure how they thought they'd fit us with our stuff, but I suppose if you can fit a family of 5 (new record I saw), it wouldn't be such a tall order). Plenty hot and more-so humid (even at 6am) we decide to trek the 4km or so to the main tourist-backpacker area in search of a hotel. Walking through Saigon (and the day and a half we've spent there since) confirmed much that is written about it - it's the economic center of the country and ostensibly doesn't offer the charm found throughout many other parts of the country. After our trip, it was hard to disagree - after everything we've seen of the country, it just feels like a big city. But in the end, we're largely here for the food, and if it comes together anywhere in Vietnam, it's in Saigon. We stopped at a large open storefront advertising "Pho Bo/Ga Hanoi" Despite the heat and humidity, we've really taken to Pho for breakfast. Their rendition was as solid as any we've had. Caffeinated and bellies full, we set out looking for a hotel.

Breakfast

Our dining neighbor

The big city

After a few peeks at rooms and attempts to haggle (this city's a bit more expensive), we finally found a clean, seemingly new hotel with a solid double room for $15. Sold. They even let us check in at 7:30am. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. A mid morning nap caught us up on the sleep lost by the jostling and stop-confusion from the train ride. We took a walk around District 1, partially in search of another well reviewed bakery (can you see a trend here) which produced a solidly buttery and delicious chocolate danish of sorts.
We circled back around to a Banh Mi stand Cindhu had spotted that was parked in the middle of a sort of street-style food court. The Saigon-famous sandwich for Cindhu and I opted for their version of Bun Thit Nu'ong. Both were good, but didn't touch the perfection we had eaten in Hoi-an and Hue respectively.

Danish remnants

Banh Mi with the works

Menu from the 'food court'. In the background is one of the seemingly thousands of brides we saw in public in Vietnam, fresh off a photoshoot for sure

 Then followed getting Cindhu's snapped glasses fixed at a sidewalk stall. The owner spent a good 10 minutes digging through an enormous glass case filled to the brim with every style of frame imaginable before pulling out a passable, black rimmed pair that would fit her lenses (with a bit of grinding on his little electric wheel for a perfect fit). Not bad for $7 when back home it's something like $90+ for new frames (with the requisite b.s. about needing new lenses too).

Nice glasses

The stall we went to seemed to be a father-son duo - father took care of the eyewear, son did the watches

A bit more lazing about, then we sought out a small South-Indian restaurant (catching another trend?) we had read about for our Vietnam version of a splurge dinner ($10 combined with three dishes, bread, rice, mango lassi and three beers). The spice level was just at the top of the range that we both like (which means I was sweating pretty thoroughly) and the curries had good depth. The paratha was perfect. We hung around a bit longer staring out the front of the open restaurant, waiting for the now daily downpours (I think we're catching the tail end of the monsoon season in the south) to subside. Back to the hotel for an episode of Six Feet Under and an early night.

Today started with the seemingly compulsory daily pastry stop - the hotel is right next door to a large bakery. A chocolate frosted donut for C and a croissant that was basically bathed in chocolate sauce for me. Messy as all heck on an already sticky morning but so so good. Both pastries did justice to their namesakes' potential. Sad to be leaving a country with French-influenced baking. We headed up to the famous indoor Ben Thanh market - home of stall after stall selling mostly things western tourists (like us) might want to buy (as Christmas presents for our family - I may skimp on the details here to avoid spoilers). It's loosely organized into clumps of stalls selling the same sorts of things - clothes, coffee, artwork, hand carved/sewn/crafted things, bags of dried seahorses (?) - you know, the usual. We spent a good few hours wandering semi aimlessly, fending off the trays of roasted coffee beans being shoved in our faces (mmm...), arm tugs towards knock off clothing and goofy tourist t-shirts, and so on. Once we dove into the haggling process, we got a feel for it pretty quickly. After possibly overpaying for a few small things (getting from $20 to $12 when it could have been $9 is not too big a deal), we found a rhythm. Some things had listed prices, many you had to ask to then be quoted some hopeful, crazy high price (80,000 VND for a Bia (beer) Saigon tank top? Heck no). There were a number of stalls with "fixed price" signs that I suppose were for those who didn't see the fun in trying to fight your way to a lower price for some silly thing that you don't need. Generally we found that if you offer a third or less of their first quoted price, stay firm, budge a tiny bit, walk away, come back when they budge and call you back, stay firm and start walking away again, often they'd agree and either act upset/hurt or show what I like to think was some small amount of begrudging respect. Most vendors didn't end up being too nice about it, but a few we had fun with and we walked away with some fun gifts and a few silly things for ourselves (I am a little pale/hairy for tank tops, but hey, it's hot out and Bia Saigon is delicious and usually about 60 cents a bottle).

Spoilt for choices

Fresh spring roll

One of the few translated menus we dealt with

A quick pitstop back at the hotel, then a short taxi in today's torrential rains to the main post office (great old building with the largest portrait of 'Uncle Ho' I've seen in this country hanging in the background) to mail our Christmas presents and a few things we don't want to carry with us on the following legs of the trip. Unfortunately there was no haggling to be done on the international air mail prices. Oh well.

Smiling approvingly in the background

 A nice walk back to our hotel's area (now that the rain had stopped) and out for our last dinner. I had read of a Banh Mi stand that, according to some quick googling, should offer one of the country's best rendition of the famous sandwich, but we arrived to her cleaning up her stand - all sold out. Darn. We ventured along some side streets along tourist-central, full of big clubby restaurants with eager young people handing out happy hour fliers, until we found the inviting looking street stall we were looking for. Fried noodles with beef (with mustard greens, sprouts, scallions, and egg - topped with a delicious salt-chili oil and picklid diced garlic found in little jars on the table). Two heaping plates + two Bia Saigon = 80,000VND. Perfect last dinner in Vietnam.

The usual table settings. It's always a good sign if there is a jar of homemade chili relish

 The food here has been everything we wanted it to be. The only times we went wrong was straying from the local fair and not simply following our eyes/noses. Hopefully we've learned some good lessons for the countries to come. The bus to Phnom Penh leaves around 7 tomorrow morning - should allow us plenty of time to grab a last breakfast bowl of Pho to send us off.

Tam Biet Vietnam! It's been a blast.