Day 11 - Back to Saigon

Our flights had been changed to get off the island a few days earlier - and it meant we had an extra day in Saigon (Ho Chi Ming City). We had already ‘done’ the city and it felt all too familiar already – so we read that another part of the city worth staying in was Cholon – which was “Chinatown” and was away from usual tourist trail full of touts, travel agencies, pick-pockets and more western style restaurants and bars.

It was truly in classic “Chinatown” style – with lots of Chinese writing and hotels that had lots of gold and marble in the foyers. It was difficult to find a good hotel – some of the ones we took a look at were depressingly dreary, smelly and damp. But we found one that suited our needs – apart from the karaoke bar across the road which thankfully didn’t keep us awake that night.

This was the view from our hotel...



We went exploring the streets and Del got some more great photos...





Came across a bakery and was fascinated by the wide selection of who-knows-what and the great prices. Ended up getting a wide selection of pastries and buns – just whatever caught our fancy... “This looks good, how about one of these?” – pointing at it, smiling and holding up one finger for the girl who was all shy as she tried to not laugh at our odd behaviour. I did a pretend fat walk for her (blown up cheeks, sway from side to side) which cracked her up. We were doing nothing to dispel any impressions that Westerners were a bunch of greedy fatties.

The order only came to about NZ$3 – yet it was easily enough for lunch for both of us (even after leaving a couple of things that had meat on the inside that was just too strange to finish). We ate our little feast on some steps while watching all the locals go about their business on a busy street – we were the only westerners there as we soaked up the atmosphere of the big city on our last day in Vietnam.