So Long Saigon

Our Vietnam adventure has come full circle, and I am in Saigon saying goodbye to all of the places where our adventure began last summer.  Loosely translated, that means I'm eating my way through the city, shopping and dodging some serious monsoon rains.  It's a farewell tour of sorts.  I visited the Zoom cafe where we ate a jet lagged breakfast at midnight when no one could sleep.  I stopped in at Allez Boo where Nolan got one of his first serious doses of Vietnamese attention for the "baby" with a sketch book.  I shopped at the market for knock-off North Face backpacks and sucked down four Saigon coffees (strong and sweet) in less than twelve hours.  Of course I had the obligatory bowl of Pho, declined 57 offers for a motor bike and turned down an equal number of massage solicitations.  Ahh...Vietnam.  I have not seen rats, bats or cats this time around.  The clumps of power lines no longer shock me (literally), and the motorbike traffic doesn't seem nearly as crazy as it did twelve months ago.   The culture shock is over just in time to reverse it all!

Yesterday's flight from Danang to Saigon was a special treat.  With the temperature in central Vietnam hovering in the 100 degree range for the past week and a serious water shortage, hopping onto a plane with 200 other people who have not showered in far too long was a sobering experience.  If I could have held my breath for 90 minutes, I gladly would have.  It was ripe in that plane, and, when the A/C started blowing the stench of rotten fish into the cabin, I started praying for my first breath of polluted Saigon air.  It's all about perspective.  The smoggy, thick air that greeted me here felt positively refreshing.  I decided to take a similar attitude with the rain.  I haven't seen water pressure above a trickle in at least ten days.  What came from the sky yesterday was a refreshing opportunity to bathe.  Keeping the optimistic flame alive in Saigon...

Saigon Coffee

Pho ga and an avocado shake

Highlands Coffee: Starbucks of Vietnam

Allez Boo...what power lines?

Smoggy HCMC skyline

Spring House Hotel

The obligatory tortoise at the Jade Emperor's Pagoda

Guardian of the pagoda