#46: A sweaty city tour

01.03.2020

It's amazing how a bus ride and 34°C can take a toll on you. Because of this, our day doesn't start until around 9am with a relaxed breakfast. Luckily, we booked breakfast again.

During breakfast, we have the limited choice between two paninis: Panini-Hamburger and Panini-Chicken. However, the staff at the bar knows no more English than 'hello', 'sorry', 'i don't have', or 'i don't understand', which makes communication more than difficult. Especially when it comes to finding out which drinks are included in breakfast. Even when he slides his laptop with Google Translator to us, we are not entirely sure if he understood our fairly simple question. But apparently, all drinks are included in the breakfast package. So, we order a Panini-Chicken and a coconut cocoa drink.

The cocoa is more like a coconut shake with cocoa and tastes good. After a surprisingly long wait, we finally get our paninis, which are okay. As we make our way back to the room, the bartender chases after us with a bill. The cocoa is not included in breakfast. Dö Döm. They should now cost 4 euros together, as much as we often pay for a complete dinner. We try to explain to him that this is not acceptable and that it is his mistake, if anything. However, he doesn't understand a word and calls his half-English speaking (presumed) boss. We don't know what he told her, but she is snappy from the beginning and explains to us that we now know that the drinks cost something and that we have to pay. Good service looks different. Since we don't want to get into more trouble on our second-to-last day, we express our displeasure but reluctantly pay the bill.

After the nice breakfast, we finally visit the city, quite annoyed. The city is very versatile as it has both historic-looking corners and highly modern areas. Everywhere there are details to discover, such as tiny stands and small art galleries. The traffic here is comparable to Bangkok, it's very crowded everywhere and it's fast-paced. Only the Tuk Tuks are completely missing here. But it's so hot that you can't keep up with drinking. You virtually escape from shade to shade.

On our tour, we walk through a park, past the Reunification Palace, the Notre Dame Church (presumably a remnant from colonial times), the Central Post Office, the Saigon River, and the old market. Everything is worth seeing, especially the church as it seems to be a smaller replica of Notre Dame in Paris. But because it's super hot, we finish our tour after a few hours and prepare for tomorrow's flight to Phuket.

In the early evening, we stroll through the neighborhood, including the so-called Walking Street that borders our street. It's quite lively here, with bars and restaurants lined up one after another. For dinner, we choose a slightly quieter side street and observe the hustle and bustle around us. After dinner, it's already dark outside and we make our way back to the hostel. We will go to bed early again tonight because we have to get up early tomorrow.