It’s my birthday today (yay, me!). Laura took me on a mystery plane journey to “somewhere”.
That somewhere turned out to be …. Barcelona!
Laura, you have surpassed all other presents in the world and given me the best gift I have ever received! Thank you so much x
Birthday Boy in the pool
Birthday Boy at the pool
Pancho Villa maracas
This photo was from years ago when I still drank and it was taken in Glasgow, anyway… but … pic is related…
Happy Birthday, everybody!
Now… this is food!…
Best!
The War Remnants Museum is a fantastic place to go to learn about the atrocities of the war with America. We spent at least 2 hours in there… so much photography of events that are unfolding in front of you, like you are there at the time of it happening. Horrendous, but it is a must!
Went to another one of the many markets in the city… Some treasures amongst the sea of tat in there. Takes patience, though!
Went to a chocolatier’s and bought some bars of lovely chocolate as gifts and some for ourselves.
Had a huge a burger to adjust back normal food.
Biggest burger
Had a drink at the rooftop bar while we waited to go to the airport.
View from grand hotel rooftop bar
Nearly home time 🙁
:(
Boarded flight at 12:30am….
*Sigh*, gone!
On our last night we booked a motorbike each to go round the various districts of Ho Chi Minh/Saigon and sample some street food. It was one of the best things we did during the whole holiday. We are so glad we did it because it nearly didn’t happen due to a small mix up at our hotel.
Laura and her driver
We hoped on the motorbikes after meeting the guides and went on our way. We stopped at 5 places during the entire night, and the tour lasted 4 hours. totally worth it. We ate some food that I would never have picked myself, but it was fantastic and I’m so glad I tried everything put in front of me!
We had Vietnamese pizza (not a pizza), spring rolls, noodles and pork, and at one of the stops, we got to make the thing we were eating. It was a sort of pancake made out of rice milk, with a filling, all wrapped up.
Laura making her Hanoi summer roll
The tour guides were very pleasant and had a lot to talk about when asked, and had plenty questions of their own for us! So much fun and we were glad we did it. It will certainly help with the thought of having to fly home tomorrow.
Lovely hotel room. We booked one of the oldest rooms in the hotel as this girl was built in 1930. Nice wee room. One minor quibble:
We went out of dinner to Baba’s Indian curry house in the backpacker district. Fantastic curry. I asked for a spicy prawn dish, and they didn’t hold up on the chilli seeds. Really good! Definitely give it a go of you find yourself in Ho Chi Minh.
After that we wanted to go for a quiet drink in a nice pub…
We went her went the lols… it was painful…
Found another pub that was showing WWE so we watched that and had a few.
Much Rainier here but it is a lovely place.
Cycled to An Bang beach for the day.
Bike ride
We saw a man and his buffalo in the rice fields.
Rice fields
The beach
Picture of the holiday
Wasn’t too busy, but it is low season and a Monday.
Nice place!
After the beach… we found this place:
This is a very useful thing!
Husband daycare
Went to old town for dinner. Found a place called “Nu Eatery”.
Fantastic food. We both had steamed rolls with pork. Then a pulled pork burger. Small portions, but that is a good thing because they were so filling. Plus the entire meal was $9, and that includes a beer and 2 bottles of water! Amazing!
I manages to get outside today as I was feeling a bit better. We went to try on our new clothes that were being made for us.
As soon as I put on one of the shirts, I was sweating through it. I was past the embarrassment of it as sweating is my favorite pastime these days anyway!
We were both happy with our stuff apart from a few wee things! All good for picking up tomorrow.
Went for dinner in “Streets” again. Too good not to…
Got a taxi back to the hotel. The driver is a very short man…
Dat legroom
Tonight it was the moon festival, in which all shops turned off their lights and lit fires outside next to an alter.
On the river,people were floating candles in little paper boats.
We got ourselves a boat ride along the river. We thought it would be a lovely thing to experience seeing how we are not here forever.
That would have been been case of it was not for this annoying little bugger that was on the boat with us. He was the son of the guy rowing the boat. He would booty shut the … up! He had his own candle that I was very nervous to be around because he was waving around like a fan and splattering wax all over the place.
And he was a scratcher! I actually shouted at him to stop and expected his father to shout at me, but this kid is clearly a little git and it’s shouted at by every tourist on his boat.
After all that, he docks the boat, I nearly fall in the water, he tries to get more money off us. Then we ran away.
10/10 for the romanticism…
Went for dinner. Came home. Tried to watch Netlix. Zonked out!
One of the highest-rated restaurants in Hoi An , “Streets”, was a must. It works the same way as the “Friends” restaurant in Phnom Penh where they take less-than-fortunate children/teens and give them a job, and train them up to have a better chance at things.
I had “My Quang” and Laura had “Banh xeo”. No complaints, brilliant food!
Had a browse round some shops. Bought some things, took pictures of otherd.
Urncerpshoon
They stole my idea….
Gemstones art museum, wine bar & boutique
Obviously…
We got a taxi to the “Old Town” and had a wander passed the many shops and street vendors in this place.
Japanese bridge
We found a menu that looked interesting enough, but it was so basic and terrible it was a regret we went there. Should have gone to Trip Advisor!
The view was nice, though!
Riverside restaurant
Soft drinks & bebrs
Very basic meal :(
Walked through the market where ever second stall sold the same stuff. So, so busy! After about 45 minutes we found a pub playing live music so we took a seat.
Laura hates this T-shirt
The bar staff started taking the piss with my mocktails… this is the second one. The third will have an umbrella, piece of fruit, sparkler, firework, more straws, and a note to tell me I’m a wimp for not drinking alcohol!
Fancy sober!
Artsy shot, or something
So far, I love Ha Noi!
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