10/8 from Can Tho to Saigon
Through the reception, without any commission and anticipated paying, I booked a 100 thousand dong Phuong Trang bus voucher seat. A free shuttle picks me up, and takes me to their office, where I give back the voucher and get and pay the real ticket. These buses are very comfortable, air conditioned, and also a complementary bottle of water is offered.
I leave at 10.15, and arrive in Saigon, terminal Mien Tay, at nearly 13.45. I could take a public bus, but want to stay comfortable, and I get into a taxi, after all, it was not an expensive holiday.
I tell the driver to leave me at the Ben Thanh Market, and from there I go in search of a hotel. In the area there are several ones, but I’d like a cheap one which is not too shabby, so it is not easy. In this area the low end is 30 USD, the cheap guesthouses are in the backpackers area of Pham Ngu Lao, but I do not want to get far away from the market.
I bargain 28 USD with breakfast included at the Gia Huy Hotel. I leave my luggage in the room, and go out to explore the city. My intention, since it is 15.00, would be to go to the War Remnants museum, which closes at 17.00, but I can not find any My Linh taxi, I lose a bit of time looking at the shops, and in the end I get inside the Ben Thanh. The market is very large, but the souvenirs stalls are very repetitive. It seems to me that the lacquered objects cost less here than in Hoi An. T-shirts have a fixed price (72 thousand dong). They also sell the ao-dai, the traditional women’s clothes, but the fabrics are all synthetic.
I paid 100 thousand dong cotton / silk blouses in Hoi An (from a base of 200 thousand dong) here they are very expensive, since the initial request is 500 thousand dong. I object to the seller that in Hoi An they cost less than half, and she says that the quality is different. Instead, they are really the same thing.
In many Tripadvisor reviews foreigners complain about the aggressiveness of the sellers, who come to the physical contact in order to drag them to see their merchandises. This is really true, however, for these things over the years I have developed such a habit that when I feel my arm is sucked back by some hands I struggle with a tug and go straight without even looking back.
At 19.00 I meet Alessia, a fellow citizen who have lived and worked in Saigon for a couple of years. She is a 25 years old girl, fluent in Vietnamese, she asks me what I want to eat, and when I say “local food”, she brings me to Ngoc restaurant.
It is a beautiful colonial style villa, full of atmosphere, arches, columns, canopy tents on the tables, soft lighting, a scenic fountain with a bathtub, and also, alas, a rat which runs on my feet on the terrace (luckily at the end of the meal). The place is packed, both with tourists and locals. The food is so-so, fortunately the costs are not exorbitant.
Exchanging impressions with Alessia is useful to try to understand more about the country, with all the differences that exist between North and South, not only linguistically
151mila dong and a taxi takes me to the airport, luckily I did not exceed the 15 kgs baggage allowance. I arrive in Bangkok on time
Why did I title the story “I ♥ Vietnam”? It’s the print of a t-shirt I bought at the Ben Thanh Market. 3 simple words that summarize three weeks and a half wonderful holiday