Walking, Massages, and Tapas, Oh My!

This morning Jason and I explored Ho Chi Minh City by foot. We are saving the museums, pagodas, and other really touristy things to see for Monday when Ted is here, so we aren’t seeing everything twice. We walked by the famous post office with a huge painting of Ho Chi Minh, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the opera house, and some famous sights from the Vietnam War, like the Hotel Rex. There are statues and pictures of Ho Chi Minh throughout the city. I’ve been told that the war is referred to here as the “American War.” We plan to tour the anti-American War Remnants Museum with Ted on Monday.

We walked down Le Loi street, seeing more famous buildings and eventually ending at the big marketplace, which had a bit of everything. We saw many of the cyclo drivers camping out on their bicycle rickshaws. Jason told me that many of them are men who fought in the war on the side of the south and were punished and stripped of their citizenship and all rights at the end of the war. They wear tattered clothing and search for tourists to drive around the town. The Lonely Planet guidebook stated that many were former doctors, teachers, and journalists that were punished for siding with the Americans. It’s really sad. Actually there was a family sitting next to me on the airplane that was returning to Vietnam to see long lost relatives. I sat next to a Vietnamese-Canadian girl about my age, and she was telling me that her mother is returning for the first time since 1975 to see the siblings she left during the war, and she and her siblings are meeting aunts, uncles, cousins, and other family members for the first time. Tears filled their eyes when the plane landed in Ho Chi Minh City. What an emotional reunion!

The local market was beautiful but hot. It looked similar to other markets I’ve been to in Asia with fresh, live seafood; beautifully stacked tables of fruits, herbs, and vegetables; and bags of rice and grains. There were also trinkets, clothing, hairclips, a ton of shoes. You name it, it probably was sold somewhere in the market.

We met Rachel again for lunch at a French restaurant and then went back to the cute coffee shop called Nirvana, but unfortunately the power was out there. Rachel and Jason have a really luxurious set-up. Their apartment comes with a built-in cleaning/ maid service, so the towels are changed daily, beds made, and even the floors are cleaned. They also have a cook who comes three days a week. She does the grocery shopping, prepares the meals, and even cleans up and does the dishes! She packs all of the food into nice, plastic, microwavable containers and places them in the refrigerator, so all they need to do is reheat their food in the microwave. She even washes and cuts up the fruit for them!

When Rachel returned from work, we went for a foot massage at the Qing Dong Du Salon, recommended in her Asia Life magazine. The Vietnamese women looked small and frail in their orange shirts, but these women were strong and intense! It was actually a little painful. I felt like they were rubbing the skin off of my legs, but the massage on the soles of my feet felt great. They finish the massage with arms, shoulders, neck, back, and head – bending, twisting, slapping your body. I am not sure if I liked this one that much or not. I prefer the one from yesterday.

We went out to dinner with some of Rachel’s friends and co-workers to a Spanish tapas place called Pacharan. We had a couple of pitchers of sangria and the tapas were pretty tasty. Although I can’t say I had an extremely busy day, I do feel exhausted. I’m looking forward to the weekend. I hope the sun comes out. It’s been overcast with a sprinkle here and there. And tonight it poured for hours. But then again, it is the rainy season!