Thomas in der Welt
Thomas in der Welt
vakantio.de/usurpator

Day 4 meeting locals

Published: 04.09.2019

I arranged to meet Chung via Couchsurfing (great app), he wants to show me around the city. Andej joins spontaneously and Chung's friend, Truc, also comes along, very nice people.

We hop on Chung's motorcycle and head to the ferry terminal. The ferry costs 15000 Dong and provides a good view of the city, especially the wealthier neighborhoods. After about half an hour, we arrive on an island and go to a good restaurant. They serve rice soup with cooked duck blood (taste-wise, meh), along with duck meat and a sour salad. They offered us 10-day-old incubated duck eggs to try, but I politely declined. They are supposed to be very tender.

Afterwards, we wander around the area a bit and have Vietnamese coffee. Then we take the ferry back to District 1 to see a few more things (opera house, turtle fountain). Along the way, we also have mooncake, something special for this time of year.

In the evening, Andrej and I wanted to go to Chinatown, District 5. We quickly found the bus there, but the bus driver didn't give us a heads-up on time. So, we went too far. Unfortunately, we were also a bit late, and there was no sign of the Moon Festival. We couldn't find a bus back, so we rode back with an old man on an old motorcycle, all three of us crammed on.

Outside the hostel, there was a group of Portuguese people who shared their vodka with me. Typical party tourists.

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