Ho Chi Minh City

I thought the border crossing into a Communist country would be scary. Was a joke. The easiest of all entries. I don’t think the baggage scanner even worked and there was no personnel to make sure we did it. Walked down the steps, a guy scanned my visa for 5 seconds and stamped my passport.  Boom-ba-da-bing I’m in Vietnam. Ironically, in Siem Reap tour guide Bo noticed that Julie had the wrong entry date on her evisa altho’ she filled in hubby Mike’s data correctly. Bo arranged a flight for her, using a permit rather than a visa. On our ride to the border, our bus “fixer” noticed Al’s middle name on passport was missing on his visa, this  after a 5 hour ride. Bo arranged for him to catch a 5 hour bus back to Siem Reap. Both he and Julie paid $250 for a document allowing them to fly to HCM City. They were on the same flight. So another cost. Bo leaves us today and a new guide takes over  We will miss him as a guide and as a friend  

Formerly named Saigon, HCM City was almost bombed out of existence, and from the ashes grew a very modern city. 







A few of us got up early to wish Bo and 3 Aussies who join another tour today good Karma. We went to a Not Starbucks for a great cup of egg coffee in a Zen setting. 




Since arriving in Bangkok, I have seen 3 Starbucks, 2 MacDonalds, 3 KFCs and 0 Timmys. Tons of 7 11s in Bangkok, not here. ATMs ubiquitous in Thailand and Cambodia, not here. 1 CDN$ gets you  18 234.49 VND (dong). A coffee costs 35 000 dong. High finance. I couldn’t get dong at the currency exchange in Kitchener so just ATM’d 1 million dong. Only time I’ll be a millionaire. Of course that will get me only 28.5 cups of coffee. Sheesh! Today is a free day and many are catching up on their sleep. 



Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 21, 2024 at 3:42 PM

    Yes, I remember all the 7-11’s in Bangkok as I used them to cool off, taking my time looking at everything while inside. Early this wk, we were in a deep freeze, -36, here in Vernon. An Arctic vortex moved down breaking cold temps throughout Canada. It’s warmed up considerably & we’ve had two dumps of snow in the last two days. Tonight we’re at -1. Alberta was in crisis mode as they didn’t have enough power to handle all that was being used.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SandyKJanuary 22, 2024 at 3:55 AM

    Beautiful city. It’s -6 feels like-12 today. Crazy about the currency that you can say you are a millionaire. Coffee looks delicious

    ReplyDelete
  3. SEJanuary 22, 2024 at 3:59 AM

    So glad you were able to cross the border without a hitch. I was curious about the egg coffee so I Googled it. It was created by a bartender working at a hotel in Hanoi in 1946. There was a milk shortage so the bartender combined creamy egg yolks and sugar as a substitute.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pam MJanuary 26, 2024 at 6:46 AM

    Sounds exotic. Enjoy the next leg of the trip.

    ReplyDelete

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