September 22, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

For our last day by ourselves in Ho Chi Minh City, we had a relatively low-key day. We walked through Japan Town in the morning and met a cousin’s friend for lunch. In the evening, we met the other people who would be with our tour group and all went out to dinner.

Japan Town

Since we knew we were meeting someone for lunch, we headed to Japan Town beforehand since it was close to the restaurant. After walking through the front gate, we saw a lot of small streets and alleys with small stores at the street level and housing above, very similar to mixed-use buildings back home but with much smaller stores and everything very close together.

We started walking through all the alleys, and Melody spotted “Kiyo Bakery and Coffee”, so as a nod to my mom, we went in to take a look. We found a couple of prepackaged pastries to buy and sat down to eat.

After we were done, we continued wandering around. We saw some women dressed in white, and it didn’t take long to notice that they were in front of the spas. Since it was morning, the whole of Japan Town was pretty quiet, but my cousin said it’s pretty crazy at night. Not surprising, with a large percentage of the stores being bars.

Lunch

After we left Japan Town, we went to the restaurant where we were to meet my cousin’s friend, Lam. She showed up and we all immediately started talking a mile a minute. We stopped to order several dishes (mostly shellfish), then continued talking.

We had a few different clams, scallops, and some fried rice. Everything was so great, and Lam (as well as my cousin earlier) assured us that our tour itinerary looked good. She said she and my cousin have a lot of plans for travel when Lam moves back to the States.

After saying goodbye, we went to another café to catch up on things. On the way we walked through Book Street, which is a pedestrian street with bookstores lining both sides, several which also served food.

The café we went to the previous day was very upscale, more so than we’re used to. This day, however, we chose one which is known for its Communist-era kitsch. At first it took us a while to find it; while there’s a big sign facing the street, once you go into a small alley, there’s only a small sign indicating that you should go upstairs. Even when you get to the door, there’s juts small signage, enough that you might question that you’re in the right place when you get in. Other than the theming and decor, it could be like any of a number of independent cafés that we normally go to.

Tour group

When it was time to meet up with what would be our tour group for three weeks, we went to the hotel lounge area and immediately saw our guide, Bao. It didn’t take long for everyone else to show up. We were the only ones from the States; one woman was from New Zealand and the other five people were from Australia. After going over administrivia, we hopped into a couple of taxis to go to a restaurant. We ate on a balcony with a view of the Saigon River and could see lit buildings all around us.

After dinner, we all walked back to the hotel, early enough so we could sleep before going on an early bus ride to the Cu Chi Tunnels.