Day 17 - Walk through Saigon

My report of the day starts this time with the previous night. It was actually horrible. The worst night so far. My loyal readership knows what that means, after all, I've already slept one night on the aisle of a bus bite. At least I was able to sleep back then. There was no chance of a good night's sleep this time. In my previous post, I wrote that you couldn't hear anything from the party street in the hostel. Well, I wasn't completely wrong about that. However, you could actually FEEL the bass of the music. The rhythmic thumping went through every pore of my body. In addition, the roommates in the dorm didn't make much effort to be quiet when going to bed. Coupled with an extremely loud toilet flush that seemed to be activated every hour, I could hardly close my eyes. Even if it had been quiet in the room, I wouldn't have slept well. The reason for that was an extremely hard bed - the mat on the bus aisle was softer - and a pillow that didn't deserve a mention at all. A disaster for me as a side sleeper. In the end, I had to make do with putting one of my bundles of clothes under the thin pillow so that my head was slightly higher. It didn't help much. I slept very little and was very tense in the morning.

Fortunately, I had already reserved a spot for the morning yoga session at the yoga studio 15 minutes away. The yoga was very pleasant and just what my tense, sleep-deprived body needed. There is also a juice bar on the ground floor of the yoga studio, where I got a green smoothie for the way back. I also made a detour to the Tous les Jours bakery, where I bought a Pain au Chocolate that I ate in the adjacent park before heading back to the hostel for a shower.

After the shower, I packed up the few things that I had dug out of my backpack for the night and checked out of the hostel. The new hostel where I will spend the rest of my nights in Saigon is only a stone's throw away, but it is about 200-300 meters away from the party street as the crow flies, so I can expect a more relaxing night. The hostel owner was incredibly friendly. He even speaks excellent German and was very eager to make my arrival pleasant. He even carried my backpack up the 7 flights of stairs to my room.

While waiting for my spot at the hostel to become available, I took a classic sightseeing tour of Saigon, visiting the most important buildings and places. At first, I strolled through several adjacent parks, including a sculpture park where a man was playing the Hang. I continued to the park of the Reunification Palace, the unfortunately scaffolded Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the opera house.

Behind the turn-of-the-century main post office, there was even a book street, which I already knew from Hanoi. Finally, I walked through the banking district to the Sai Gon River.

Since most of the sights are close to each other, I finished my tour in just two hours. However, these two hours felt like an eternity. I was completely sweaty because of the heat, my feet hurt, and quite honestly, I was already fed up with Saigon. The city reminds me a bit of Shanghai - the noise, the heat, the smells. Clearly, big cities are not for me.

For lunch, I just got something small from the supermarket and a very delicious peach-hibiscus iced tea. With that and a book, I sat on the lovingly designed rooftop terrace of the hostel.

In the early evening, I took the bus to the observation deck of the Bitexco Financial Tower, where you have a 360-degree view of Saigon.