Our Last Couple of Days in Vietnam

Tuesday Jan 25, 2011 & Wednesday Jan 26, 2011



Now this is real street food. Dining on the sidewalk.

Colette's enjoying her last meal in Saigon

On Tuesday I had a nice leisure day with Liza. We walked around the city then we hung out at an outdoor cafe at the Saigon River. The river is nothing to look at but it was so peaceful that we hung out for a couple of hours. On the way back we ran into Colette. It was her last day in Vietnam so we wanted to make sure we met her for dinner. Colette wanted us to try street food that she had the night before. So the two of us went with her.  Street food really is street food, cars and mopeds whizz right by your dining table.   The sidewalk is set up with plastic stools and low tables. You pick out your fresh seafood or whatever you want to eat and they grill it right there for you. I had enough of seafood and had a veggie egg fried rice plate and a beer. Colette and Liza picked out a bunch of shelled seafood.  Food was delicious and fast. Thanks Colette for the recommendation. I hope she's having a good flight home now and her new art pieces made it home safely too. 

Liza's chilling along the Saigon River.

Water Puppet Show

Resting on a "vietnamese" bench.

Medicine Herbs in Cholon

Sweets for the Tet celebration

Today we went to Cholon which is the Chinatown here. It's incredible how big new years is for the Vietnamese.  The Tet is February 3rd. There are lots of festivals and activities surrounding the 3rd. We're planning to go to the flower festival tomorrow afternoon. Cholon has lots of stores selling red and gold hanging decorations for the new years. We visited a few temples and the herbal medicine street. At one of the herb shops we found a man that spoke English. We got a few things that he recommended. We bought these bags of herbs that's used for tea. It's suppose to be an all around good health tea that cleanses your blood, helps with cholesterol, high blood pressure etc. The man told Beth that it tastes just like regular tea. He also sold Beth and Liza some medicine for back and joint pains. 

Paddington & George visiting temples in Cholon.

In the afternoon I went for a two and a half hour body scrub/massage and facial package. Beth had already experienced it on Saturday night with the other girls so today she just got the 90 minute body massage. It was sooooooo relaxing! I napped for most of the two and a half hours. My bill was only 17.50 plus tip!

Tomorrow is already our last day here.  I'm really not looking forward to saying goodbye to the little ones at Go Vap :(. We already decided we would stay an extra hour tomorrow. The time here has gone by too fast. 

Between peace and happiness