Days 89-95 Saturday-Friday February 6-12 Saigon, Vietnam

We (thankfully) took our last overnight train of our trip from Danang (Hoi An) to Saigon. Even though taking these overnight trains in China and Vietnam saved us a ton of time and weren’t too terrible, we swore to never take another one again in our lives. Hopefully we will be able to afford flights when the time comes so we can keep to this promise. The overnight trains are not life threatening or anything, but we’ve come to realize on this trip that our tastes have become refined enough to travel with certain conveniences and luxuries from now on.

And speaking of conveniences, when we got to Saigon at 4:30am, we grabbed a taxi to Steve, Lisa, and Luke’s house and were greeted at the gate by their maid. Yes, their maid. She cleans. She runs to get Vietnamese coffees or food when requested. She does laundry. She does it all, and we got awfully spoiled by her while we stayed with our friends. If only hired help was so cheap in the US.

Tania making the most of having a couch for a few days.

Having been on the road for so long, we loved back being in a home environment with a kitchen, couches, proper bedrooms, and just that homey feeling that hotels can’t provide.

Of course on our first night in Saigon, we did as the Saigonians do and went out big with Steve, Lisa, Luke, and their friends, dancing to the techno beats that are the heartbeat of the city. It was a great time, and thank God we had that homey environment so we could recover the next afternoon on their trusty couches. We also needed to rest up because we had to be at Phatty’s, the local sports bar, at 6:30am the next morning to watch the Saints and Colts play in the Super Bowl.

We were sorely mistaken in thinking that we would have prime seats before the crowd arrived just because we got to the bar before the sun rose, because when we got to Phatty’s, the place was jam packed and we were delegated to the back corner watching the game on a marginally big screen off in the distance through several support pillars. It didn’t matter, though, because we had a access to delicious bloody marys and a good enough view to see Drew Breese and the Saints pull of the big upset over the Colts. So cool for the city of New Orleans after all they’ve been through this decade.

We even sat next to several of Steve’s friends who were from New Orleans, meaning the victory tasted that much sweeter when their friend bought drinks for the group after the game. We guess football fans are football fans (the real football, American, not that crap they call football here and everywhere else in the world), whether you’re in America or an expat overseas.

After the game we walked around town, past all of the Tet decorations that were furiously being installed along the city’s largest avenues. Once past the backpacker’s district, we stopped off at Lisa’s recommended spa called Lady Saigon. And boy are we glad we did. The massages were incredible, and the environment was much more luxurious than the cheap price tag implies. Let’s just say we just happened to return to the spa two days later.

 

Scooter madness in Cholon, Saigon's Chinatown.

Thursday night was my 32nd birthday, so Tania and Lisa organized an incredible sushi dinner with 14 of their local friends. Lisa wasted no time in resuming her tradition of “shots bitches” from our LA Korean BBQ days, and we were all on our jolly way to a fun evening and worthy celebration around Saigon.

 The ladies represented at Craig's birthday sushi party.

Craig and Luke taking a breather from the birthday madness.

Other than a few other delicious dinners and a boys/girls night, we did a whole lot of hanging around the house with Toby and Guiness (Lisa’s dogs) and simply walking around town. We didn’t want to do too much site seeing since my parents were coming in a few days, and we wanted to hit all of the major sites for the first time with them.

Lisa and Steve's dogs, Toby and Guiness.  We want to clone them when we get home.

On a side note…

On this trip, Tania and I have come to the realization that we are old, really old, because our ideal night now is to have a great dinner with lively plans for afterwards, but once dessert is done and the bill is paid, we are dragging ourselves back to the house so we can crash before 10. It was a tough pill to swallow for Steve and the crew who had grand aspirations of showing us a good time of all-nighters in Saigon, but we are comfortable with the fact, after such a long and draining tour through Asia, that it’s who we are now. Maybe it’s good we’re not going back to LA and instead onto a city where we won’t know anyone. I know our livers and bank accounts will appreciate it.