Day 2 | Saigon Vietnam

Jet lag caught up with me yesterday as I woke up at midnight and was wide awake.  This made for a very long day - but I insisted on fighting it.  It's nothing a cup of Vietnamese coffee can't fix.  Speaking of Vietnamese coffee - if you haven't tried it before you really should.  It's good black or with milk, hot or cold.  I preferably like it cold, on ice, with condensed milk.  In Vietnam it's referred to as Caphe Sua Da - but to me it's simply heaven.  I can drink multiple glasses a day - not that I don't do that at home.  We stopped at a local Trung Nguyen near the Diamond Plaza (where I used to work out in a fairly posh gym with Korean housewives) for a quick morning pick me up.  I briefly mentioned before that Vietnam is riddled with cafes - Saigon especially.  The cafe culture here is infectious.  It makes me contemplate why we don't enjoy hanging out as much in Canada- time seems to stand still here while enjoying an amazing beverage while mulling over a magazine.  I never get that feeling back home when walking in a Starbucks or a local coffee shop - it's usually in and out and I will most probably enjoy my beverage at my desk.  Toronto if you are reading this please work on that.  Or maybe I need to work on that?  

After a relaxing morning coffee we were off to one of our most favourite places in the city.  The Lan Anh Club which boasts a pretty great swimming pool and lounging atmosphere.  On many occasions we would wake up and spend a great amount of our mornings here - how else do you think we got those rockin' tans.  However the Vietnamese sun has not been too kind to us.  Our white pasty Canadian skin has taken a beating - but I don't care.  It will turn into a tan eventually.  No pain no gain - right?  We spent a good chunk of the morning here swimming, lounging, drinking buckets of Tra Da (iced green tea), and more swimming.  It was a pretty great way to spend the later part of the morning.

From swimming we found ourselves in a local Pho 24 on Dong Khoi Street - just a few blocks from our hotel.  I was quickly reminded that the Pho in Toronto has got nothing on the real thing.  Needless to say my bowl was emptied quickly and washed down with delicious guava juice. 

Later in the day we had dinner with two people at the Indochine Restaurant who set up our itinerary for us - I am sure Steve will touch more on that so I wont.  


Can't wait to see what today brings us - time for breakfast.