Saigon- Part 1

I arrived in Saigon a couple days before Matt and Nile. Luckily, Takashi and Yoshie had arrived a month before me, so it didn't mean I was on my own in the city (and I had someone to pick me up at the airport after a very long flight).

We spent most of the time wandering around downtown Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City properly, but everyone just calls it Saigon).

We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral there....



I feel like I've been to a lot of churches these past couple of years. I suppose living in 'the holy land' with quick visits to big European cities will do that to you. This one stood out for having the most neon inside.



But mainly what we did was eat..... Takashi wanted to show me all the fantastic restaurants that they had discovered since arriving in Saigon.

We ate pho....


I have to thank Crystal for introducing me to pho in Vancouver, so I didn't stand out completely as a foreigner, not knowing where to put the basil and all that.

I suppose didn't stand out completely as a foreigner. . . except for the light skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, and inability to speak vietnamese that is

Another thing that Takashi introduced me to, which I think was my favourite new food on the trip was Che. Che is a Vietnamese desert that comes in a lot of different forms. It's a little bit like bubble tea, but has a lot more coconut jelly, tapioca, and other weird jelly like things in it. Beans are a pretty ubiqitous addition as well.

We mainly went for Che (and we did go fairly frequently throughout the trip) to small Che cafe's that seem to generally sit outside of girls highschools, and are full of highschool girls (obviously) during their breaks. There you could get a glass of Che: ice, jelly-like goodies, beans and a some sort of sweet liquid, for about 30 cents.

This is a picture of a fancier Che that we had in a restaurant...