Saigon

Our tour ended when we arrived in Saigon yesterday, where we were dropped off on a street with lots of cheap hotels. We ended up getting a place kind of tucked away in a shady looking alley, but it is actually quite nice and only $10 a night! After a quick shower, we headed off into the streets in search of pho. At first, we were disappointed since we were near backpackers row full of overpriced Tex-Mex, Italian, and other western food. Finally we ventured far enough and found a dumpy looking restaurant with great pho and Vietnamese coffee. Very cheap and very tasty!

We walked around the 'hood for a while before meeting our group for dinner one last time at a night market full of street vendors. There were tanks full of live seafood where you could choose your dinner - crabs, soft shell crabs, fish, shrimp, etc. Unfortunately, the one that we chose didn't have such goodness. Fortunately, they did have tasty shakes and dinner was still quite pleasant. We had fresh spring rolls with shrimp, bbq'd lemongrass pork over vermicelli noodles and bbq'd squid. After dinner, we hooked up with the Aussie couple who were on our China tour and had a couple of drinks at an annoying bar catering to westerners. The company was good though and it was nice to catch up with them!

Today we dropped off our laundry for about $0.50 a kilo and met up with the Aussie couple for lunch one last time before they headed back home. The restaurant is packed to the brim at night but we were the only customers there for lunch. Eric had something he didn't order (coke and chicken instead of pork on rice), and I had luc lac (not as good as in Cambodia!) and some overbattered soft shell crab. Oh well. Now we're paying $0.40 an hour for internet and sweating buckets despite the fan right above our heads! We are planning to do an overnight trip to the Mekong Delta tomorrow, and then to the Cu Chi tunnels and the War Museum when we get back. I hate thinking about the impending 24 hr flight back home...