We arrived today in Vietnam, our final country of the trip. We spend 2 days here in Ho Chi Minh City (a.k.a. Saigon) before a few days relaxing at the beach.
Staying at The Park Hyatt. It's every thing you'd like in a fancy hotel.
Picture of my room
View from my room
Tonight, we had a street food tour by Vespa. It might be recency bias but this was my favorite meal and favorite guide of the trip so far. You'll have to wait for pictures of us on the Vespas because they are sending them to us via email.
We were picked up at the hotel by 3 drivers and 1 guide. We each boarded a Vespa behind our trusty driver and took off into the streets of Saigon. The traffic is crazy with scooters and motorcycles going every which way and in between the cars and buses.
We made 4 stops. The first stop was to pick up sandwiches from a shop that has been around for decades. The sandwich is some kind of meat and vegetables on a baguette to rival any found in Paris. We took the sandwiches to a hip coffee shop and ate it together with spring rolls, Vietnamese coffee and some kind of kumquat juice.
The next stop was a seafood place for clams, scallops with a quail egg, crab and vegetables. The clams were my favorite.
Last stop was dessert. Sweet soup and flan. The soups are made with palm sugar and contain either palm seeds, lotus seeds or almond milk.
And this is our guide.
She is in her 20s and loves food. Her friend started this very unique tour business. She has 2 other jobs in addition to guiding and can speak 4 languages (Vietnamese, English, Japanese and Korean). It is a severe understatement to say I was impressed by her. She has so much energy and is so excited to share her country with us.
While we were on tour, she snapped photos of us. Upon arrival back at our hotel, she presented us with hot-off-the-presses photo books of the evening. She uploads the pictures as she takes them and someone is creating the books as we ride around. Absolutely incredible use of modern technology to create a memorable experience.
More tomorrow when I am less tired.
Staying at The Park Hyatt. It's every thing you'd like in a fancy hotel.
Picture of my room
View from my room
Tonight, we had a street food tour by Vespa. It might be recency bias but this was my favorite meal and favorite guide of the trip so far. You'll have to wait for pictures of us on the Vespas because they are sending them to us via email.
We were picked up at the hotel by 3 drivers and 1 guide. We each boarded a Vespa behind our trusty driver and took off into the streets of Saigon. The traffic is crazy with scooters and motorcycles going every which way and in between the cars and buses.
We made 4 stops. The first stop was to pick up sandwiches from a shop that has been around for decades. The sandwich is some kind of meat and vegetables on a baguette to rival any found in Paris. We took the sandwiches to a hip coffee shop and ate it together with spring rolls, Vietnamese coffee and some kind of kumquat juice.
The next stop was a seafood place for clams, scallops with a quail egg, crab and vegetables. The clams were my favorite.
And just like Laos and Cambodia, they have their own version of the rice pancake here. They use spices instead of coconut and serve it with a piece of seafood.
Last stop was dessert. Sweet soup and flan. The soups are made with palm sugar and contain either palm seeds, lotus seeds or almond milk.
And this is our guide.
She is in her 20s and loves food. Her friend started this very unique tour business. She has 2 other jobs in addition to guiding and can speak 4 languages (Vietnamese, English, Japanese and Korean). It is a severe understatement to say I was impressed by her. She has so much energy and is so excited to share her country with us.
While we were on tour, she snapped photos of us. Upon arrival back at our hotel, she presented us with hot-off-the-presses photo books of the evening. She uploads the pictures as she takes them and someone is creating the books as we ride around. Absolutely incredible use of modern technology to create a memorable experience.
More tomorrow when I am less tired.
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