A Vietnamazing Place

I was a little saddened today at 6 AM when I felt the rumble of the ship’s engines as they started up.  I knew it meant it was time to leave Vietnam and make our way to our next destination, Singapore. 

Our time in Vietnam was very nice.  We spent our final two days in Ho Chi Minh walking around the city and sampling the delicious food.  We ate a lot of pho and spring rolls and had a Vietnamese ice coffee or two.   

One place we really wanted to go to was the Café Blue.  We had visited it back in 2006 when we were here and really enjoyed the atmosphere.  The place has big comfy chairs and colorful walls and is a great place to escape the heat and get an iced coffee and some ice cream.  I was hoping to get a burger there again but sadly there was no food because of the Tet holiday.  The disappointment was washed away when we saw that Three Men and A Baby was on the television because the sheer randomness of that was just awesome.

Saturday evening we were finally able to get a group of people to go out and hit up the nightlife.  It’s been rather hard getting people together to go out this trip.  Kelly and I really miss our friend Jay from the last voyage.  He knew how to get a crowd out and have a fun time. 

Our night started out very disheveled but ended up turning in to a really good time.  Kelly and I went to a bar called The Drunken Duck while we waited to meet up with the rest of our group and it was an interesting scene.  It was a British type bar and the conversations around us were entertaining and confusing all at the same time.  Cockney slang is impossible to understand.  We eventually made our way to the “backpacker’s alley” section and had a few Tiger beer while sitting outside on a beautiful night. 

On our last day in the city we went out in search of a bakery, which Saigon is famous for, but ended up just getting a coffee and then more pho.  We may have a pho addiction.  We also picked up a few dvds for our time at sea.  The price of everything in Vietnam seemed to go up except for dvds.  The place was selling them for 2 for $1!  Sure they come in a plastic sleeve and they don’t always work all the way through but getting 16 movies for $8 is worth the risk.  After our movie binge we picked up a few essentials at the grocery store to spend the last of our Dong.  Yes, the currency here is called the Dong and we giggle like fourth graders everytime we say it.  We then made our way back to the ship for our evening on ship time.   We had to be back in the evening to clear customs for our early departure the next morning. 

There was barbeque on the pool deck that evening to entice everyone back on time.  We ate and everyone shared stories of their time in Vietnam.  It’s a nice country that has been through a lot over the years and hopefully has a bright future.