1.14.16-1.19.16
We woke up with an emotional hangover. Silent. We left Phnom Penh as early as possible and landed on the sunny island of Phu Quoc (Vietnam). We decided to splurge and stay in some bungalows on the beach. It was quite perfect. The staff at the Paris Beach were all pretty great, one of our little waiters came over and rattled off all of his US knowledge, including stats about the Mississippi river. We even learned a thing or two. He was super sweet. We spent our time in Phu Quoc relaxing on the beach under an umbrella, swimming and reading. Our biggest adventure was searching for an ATM. The first few we tried were broken but we finally found one that would give us money, even if the max we could get out was 2,000,000 vnd. You feel like a real baller taking out millions, making it rain, until you realize it is less than $100 usd.
On our second night we walked down the beach to a cute little Australian place called Rory’s. It had a fun environment, great drinks, good food, a huge bonfire and what was advertised as live music was just a dj, I suppose that could be qualified as live music…. We enjoyed the evening and met some nice guys – Edward (also known as Edwin) from Singapore and Ian from England. We walked home on the beach which was quite nice until we realized our hotel was locked for the night… We ended up having to move some furniture in order to jump the fence, but we got home (Roy with a nice large bruise to prove our struggle). The following day we had one of our best meals of the trip at this adorable little place called Cami’s, nothing else crazy to note.
On the 17th we had to say goodbye to our relaxing ways and jet to the main island, starting in Saigon. We stayed at a cool airbnb with a family from Slovenia with two kids (ages 4 and 2). They’ve been in Vietnam 8 months and they have a huge house (5 stories with a roof) that has 6 bedrooms. They rent out 4 of those bedrooms on a regular basis. The location was amazing and we were able to walk to a lot of sites, restaurants, and markets, so overall it was a great find. We arrived on a Sunday and the mom was working a vegan food stand at an ex-pat market called Saigon Outcast. We didn’t know what to expect but we thought we’d check it out. It was a very cool environment, live music, a variety of food and a great little bar. We ended up sampling a variety of cuisine and making some new friends, the standout being our new aussie friend Paigey poo. After a few hours there, we went back to her apt (amazing views) and then met up with a few of her friends at Bato Maison for some more music, drinks, and a fire thrower.
The next day we woke up and took a motorbike tour around Saigon with these cute little ladies. They took us to a few sites – the Central Post Office, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Reunification Palace, Tan Dinh Market, the Thich Quang Duc memorial, we drove past the Hoa Thi Ky (flower market), Cholon (Chinatown) and ended in Thien Hau Pagoda. All while drinking our sugar cane juice with kumquat, they put the drinks in a little plastic bag, making it much easier to drink while riding a motorbike. Considering we had limited time, it was a great little overview of the city. We got home and our host family took us to an excellent vegan restaurant and we ate some yummy food and got to know them a bit better.
After a muggy nap, we decided to walk around, sample some food and test our bargaining skills at the night market. It was fascinating to watch them set up as they were doing it in the street, with oncoming traffic. Men were opening tents with lightning speed. It was indescribable. We watched some tai chi in the park, bought some goods and finished the night with a drink a top the Rex hotel, a famous location where soldiers use to rest. We finished our evening at our favorite neighborhood thai restaurant – Tuk Tuk.
On the 19th we woke up and set out for a tour of the Mekong Delta. We had the sweetest guide name Hoa (flower). She had the best giggle and was full of good info. She taught us about the happy room (also known as the bathroom) and referred to us as her family. Our first stop was taking a boat to a little island where we sampled some local tropical fruit and listened to some live music. From there we stopped at a bee farm where we tasted some fresh honey. We took a boat back to the mainland where we took some tuk tuks to lunch. They made us where helmets because of low hanging coconuts. Lunch was some local fish, family style, lots of food but no one was super hungry from all of our snacking. After lunch we got in some little canoes and went for a boat ride through little canals. After our long day we treated ourselves to some excellent massages. Potentially the best of the trip yet. Saigon was great, so much to see, do and eat.
How Sasha Got Her Groove Back 