JB and Jordan go to Vietnam 1

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I was spending the first week of September in Vietnam with JB, my old friend from back home in Beijing. Opps, I just realized that neither of us live there anymore so I cant really say ‘back home’ as we’re homeless international people…. Sigh, poor us.



The living accommodation JB and I had found ourselves in were not very backpackery. Thanks to Stella (JBs mums friend from back in the day) who had put us up in her villa, I had a poolside room, free food, a pool, and was smack bang in the middle of SAIGON…. by no means roughing it.



Stella herself was one of those women whos age you could never put your thumb on, if it wasn’t for the gauge of the fact that she went to university with JB’s mum I would honestly not be able to tell how old she was, both regarding appearance and youthful exuberance. Must be all that yoga! On top of all this, she was a self made woman; an entrepreneur who entered Vietnam with first mover advantage back in the 90’s when the country was just starting to open up. If anything she reminded me of a character out of the Great Gatsby. I must admit though that I haven’t read the novel or seen the movie, so not sure which character I would pretend to base her on, but the reference made sense and made me sound like I read stuff.



Our day consisted of visiting some old colonial buildings, getting ripped off in the local market, having a roadside coffee which is actually more interesting than it sounds because you get to watch the show that is traffic in SAIGON. I must say that one of my favourite thing to do was shout “SAAIIGONN” with an American accent at random intervals throughout the day. It really didn’t stop being funny!



We ended the day in the pool, anticipating what the night activities would entail after Stella had told us that she was going to take us out that night to show us ‘the real Saigon’.



Our first stop was ‘Chill’, which was a rooftop bar that overlooked SAIGON. If anyone reading this is ever in Saigon your trip isn’t complete if you don’t pay it a visit. The view and the city lights are epic! However, I should mention that you do need to dress up quite smart. The mistake JB and I made was only packing a variation of vests, shorts and flip flops, so we got the security at the entrance to feel sorry for us and let us borrow a pair of trousers meant for the staff. We pulled it off though, and with our matching outfits we looked like Stella’s bodyguards, or waiters… or maybe just fools.



Preceding ‘Chill’ we casually headed to Stella’s restaurant ‘Temple Club’. I must say that I’ve never been with someone to their very own restaurant so this was definitely a first. Half of Temple Club was a very tasteful colonial building and the other half apparently was a thriving Hindu temple before the days of the Vietnam civil war. I got a little history lesson from Stella, where I was told that back in the day, there were a lot of Indians in Vietnam, who ran banks and pretty much bossed stuff. They all fled before the war, leaving their temples to stand as lasting memory of their time there.



Onwards to dinner (which was bliss on a plate to say the least), we were served soft shell crab and even though I’m allergic as hell it just had to be eaten, because it tasted soooo divine.



Joining us for dinner were two Italian businessmen who were very Italian and made me feel underdressed in my shorts… besides that they were stern in their advice on not marrying a Vietnamese woman and complained about the unfair divorce proceeding towards men in Vietnam. However they were talking about buying an osteridge as a pet for their house so not sure how well endowed any advice from them can really be.



Still itchy from my allergic reaction (#worthit) we moved on to spend the rest of the night at a clubs called ‘Apocolypse’ which apparently is the place to be in SAIGON and rather tastefully named after the film ‘apocalypse now’… as expected it was full of Vietnamese locals, aussie and german backpackers, and 60 year old men prowling round. JB and I promised each other we wouldn’t be shown up by a woman twice our age and go home before Stella did….. We only just beat her.



That’s pretty much it for our very long first day in SAIGON. We got to see many shades of the city and the peoples who live in it… oh and we may have taken a couple communist flags that lined the streets in the early hours of the morning on our way back home from Apocalypse. I suppose we wanted to continue the trend that evening of not paying for anything.

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Photos

Food stop on the way home
looking evil as I planned the flag knicking