Saigon By Night

"The Heat Is On In Saigon"...

Or so the lyric from "Miss Saigon" goes.  To me, the heat and humidity were okay (it's the Louisiana training, I guess) but my poor pals from Canada and Denmark were limp as unwatered flowers.

So we stayed fairly close to home the Rex Hotel, and visited Lemongrass Restaurant for dinner.

Another cute selfie... this time with the Rex Hotel's Guest Relations Specialist.

An exceptional meal... including this okra dish.  Probably the best preparation of okra I've ever had.

Barely sauteed in the merest coating of oil...with onion slivers and lemongrass and chili.  

I ate every bit.

Saigon lights up at night.  Very much the modern city.

The Rooftop Bar at the Rex- scene of many a Vietnam War powwow amongst generals and war correspondents. Now, with a great cover band.

Across the street, in front of the statue of Ho Chi Minh, teens and twenty-somethings rehearsed for a big Party rally the next day.  It's hard to remember this is technically a Communist country.

"S" ordered an "I Love Saigon" cocktail...

And I ordered a "Five O'Clock Follies".

Amazing!!

Saigon by Day

I love Saigon.

Yeah, yeah..I know the O-fficial name is "Ho Chi Minh City", but everyone still calls it "Saigon".

And spoken, "Sai Gon" is so....pretty.

Anyway... Elisabeth-with-an-S had the brilliant idea of spending the night in downtown Saigon instead of returning to the ship. It's a 30-minute-to-one-hour trip into town from port, and that would have severely cut down on our shopping  touring.  Two of "our gang", Ada and Barbara, where leaving from Saigon to fly to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat, so they came in for the day, but Che and the two Eliz/sabeths booked rooms in the famous Rex Hotel  and had ten tons of terrific fun! (well, as much fun as "ladies of a certain age" can have....)

Shuttle ride in..Vietnam is famous for their scooters...and Uber uses them here!

Also a company called "Grab" is all over the place.  No Lyft, though.

"Mom's Touch Chicken and Burgers"...cracked me up.

Banh Mi sandwiches for 12,000 Dong.... or about $0.50.

Scooters and trucks...scooters and trucks.

Ahhh..the Rex Hotel.

Cold Vietnamese Coffee with Coconut Milk chilled  in a slushie machine.  My new favorite drink.

Real Live Vietnamese Pho.... in Vietnam.

Spring Roll Starter...YUM

This is the best way to eat watermelon I've seen in a while....

My room was GREAT- beautiful floors and elegant in its simplicity.

The view is  pretty darn cool, too.

Out for a little shopping.  We walked to the famous (or infamous, whichever way you see it) Ben Thanh Market..

Wonder what caught this little kitty's eye...

Food stalls in the stifling closeness... no thanks.

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore...  but we aren't in the Middle East either...yet.

After retail therapy,  "S" and I headed to the Rex's spa for a little pampering...facials and massages.    We were greeted with a delicious ginger and lemongrass tea. (Mash a finger's length of both ginger and lemongrass and let it steep in hot water for about 10 minutes and add just a touch of honey.  Yes, we enjoyed it so much we asked how to make it....)

The next post will show our night in Saigon.  So, continuing on the next morning...a little more retail therapy... Walking around, I spied a very lovely way to decorate street lights.

More traffic...on the left you can see one of the "Grab" brand of call-a-scooter services.

We opted to take a taxi back to the port, instead of Crystal's shuttle.  The Rex's concierge happily assisted us.  She negotiated with our taxi driver to get us out of town, and to make a side trip in search of a bouquet of lotus blossoms... (well, why NOT?)

You know I love a sign...

"The Energy Coffee That Changes Life".  No wonder it's so popular.

Leather boutique...Cows?  Anacondas?

Great Street Art.

Our PRECIOUS taxi driver took us to five-yes, FIVE- different flower stalls until he found us our lotus blossoms.

For which we payed the princely sum of $8.00 for a dozen.  And got a great pic as well.

And it was back to the ship.  

Vietnam continues to grow.  So many new buildings in just the six years since I visited last.  But this is how I love to remember this land of beautiful scenery and beautiful people. Flat delta, wide open endless blue sky and fields and forests of green.

and Lotus blossoms!!!

Northern and Central Vietnam

Hello, my dears!  I've had a few lovely sea days, and made some stops on the way down to Saigon.  It was a pretty lazy time, as "Les Girls" and I had been here before, and we opted to take it easy.

So we took the shuttle in, had a walk around and enjoyed the scenery.

Thanks, Ada for sharing your pics....of Barbara and yours truly walking across from the mall...

So I returned the "favor" and caught Ada.

If you've never been to Vietnam, peeps, and are hankering for an adventure, please visit this beautiful country.  The people- oh, the people are amongst the most kind, warm and welcoming people on the planet.  And the land...oh, the land is beyond lovely.

(There's a political discussion just lurking under the words of my last statements... but this is not the time nor the place.  Chat me up sometimes..) Let's just say that Vietnam has recovered, has healed most of her wounds, and could not have been more welcoming.

We found the local market a LOT more interesting than the very new, very modern shopping mall.

I wish I had caught the smile that broke out on this lovely lady's face just after I took this photo.

Also notice the creative and decorative way the Vietnamese and Cambodians cut out the "eyes" of a pineapple- I've never seen it done this way any where else.  And we eat with out eyes as well as our tastebuds, right, peeps?

The area around Hong Gai is growing exponentially.   None of these city blocks of shops and flats were here when I visited half-a-dozen years ago. Don't you think you could blink and be in a street in France? 

Moving onto Chan May.  This is the port of call to visit the ancient capital of Hue, Da Nang and the US Army's famous R&R destination, China Beach.   I visited here in 2012 and, as I was feeling lazy  it was threatening rain and the bus to Hue was 90 minutes,  I decided for a little girlfriend visit morning.  

The lean to tents  shops had all the stuff we had just left behind in the finer street markets of Hong Kong- real glass made to look like jade, real Chinese-made "Rolex" watches, real silk scarves made of polyester.  You know it's a bad shopping day when Elisabeth's shopping bag comes back EMPTY.

Up on Lido, we had the pool area to ourselves.  It was quiet lovely.

I would love to use this for a "Make A Caption" contest.  Elisabeth, she is full of mischief (must be the name)... And there is no telling what language she is reading..it could be Danish, English, German, or a handful of other languages...

Actually, she's probably reading of shopping opportunities coming up in the Middle East!!