Day 2 | Saigon

The morning began quite early with Em waking at midnight, and myself at 4am. From midnight to 4am I'm not quite sure what went on, but from 4am - 6am I was impatiently waiting for breakfast on the fifth floor to start/open. We had an early breakfast and started our day knowing that by 2 or 3 in the afternoon we would need to crash. Nothing quite beats feeling wide awake, full of breakfast and sorting out what to do for the day when its only 7am. Needless to say, as we are still in Saigon, we got on the bike and starting driving, destination unknown. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, the destination is the bike & the city, so by 7am we were off to a good start.

With Emily in tow its quite likely that we will need to stop for a coffee regardless where we are; lucky for her I actually drink the iced coffee in Saigon (not unlike iced gold), so we stopped at another Trung Nguyen cafe near the Notre Dame Cathedral and Diamond Plaza in a real cool area of the city. This early in the morning A/C was still required, so we relaxed inside where I sat facing the cafe patio and the Medical Center across the street that so kindly sewed in a number of stitches when my head broke a fall on our old balcony a few years back. For the record, the lobby looks like it may have had a renovation. On that note, renovations, or 'changes' for that matter seem to be the name of the game. Saigon is rapidly moving forward. Vietnam's accession into the WTO was in 2006 when everyone, including our 'adult' students, were eagerly awaiting that date in January when Vietnam would become the 150th member. It appears that an endless list of ideas and projects are either completed, nearing completion, or on the long list of plans for the coming years. Visible changes to the city's infrastructure, the evident foreign investment, the posh communities popping up with driveways, yards, and quiet communities, and the changing rate of exchange make this all very clear. As someone who used to drive around the city a lot, more than a lot, it's quite staggering, and confusing to the inner compass to see the wide new roads along the river on the way to Cholon (Chinatown), the many bridges and overpasses where there were once no bridges nor overpasses, large buildings (plural!) that seem to dwarf what was once the largest building in the city the 33 storey Prudential Building, an increase in the amount of cars, even Ford appears to have arrived, not to mention many a Lexus or Mercedes, and the lack of cell phone use on motorbikes; the changes from large to small go on and on. It's beyond interesting to see a city/country change right in front of our eyes; at least partially in front of our eyes.

Anyways, Caphe Sua Da is great. After our cafe visit, we drove to the Lan Anh Club, our previously often visited swimming pool. I played tennis there on occasion, and swam there almost daily. Nothing appears to have changed, with the exception of some billboards, and it's still cheap. It costs about USD$1 per person for all day use of the pool, and about 50 cents for a bucket of iced tea. The sun is free, albeit briefly interrupted by clouds. We hung out and swam, then hung out some more before heading back to Dong Khoi St for lunch. We had some Pho for lunch, then had a look in some shops before returning to the hotel. By this time, Emily had had a full day of living, being that she was up at midnight, so she returned to the room for a sleep while I got on the bike and drove around some more. Upon my return, we got ready and headed out for dinner with two colleagues from our local tour operator. Dinner was at the 'Indochine Restaurant' at an old French Colonial home (property) where we had some wine and a set menu of soup, spring rolls, beef and vegetables in coconut milk, rice cooked in lotus leaf, and spare ribs. Needless to say, the food and atmosphere were great, we had a very nice time. After dinner, we returned, probably the long way (my idea), to the hotel where I don't believe we planned to end the night quite yet, but we were apparently both quite tired and sleep took over, no TV required.