Living in the Big City of Notorious Motor Bike Traffic

We spent most of the day hanging around Saigon before I had to head down to visit my dad's family in Chau Doc, which is in the Mekong River delta. Ben La, Vinny and I had a fun morning lounging around watching Wall-E, Ben La is such a little kid (for a 24 year old) and loves watching cartoons. As always, I had to stop by Thin, a hair salon on the famous Hai Ba Trung street to get my hair cut. I always joke it's my most expensive haircut since I have to buy an airplane ticket to get to the salon. My hair stylist gave me a graduated bob, so it's still short hair for Thuan :)

Afterwards, we wandered around the wealthy area of Saigon (all the nice 4 star hotels) and as Ben La jokes, all the prices in the shops are quoted in US $ and not VND $. Ben La, Vinny and I went to "Fanny" ice cream shop and ordered the "Fondue" which came with 14 ice cream flavors, fresh fruit, chocolate fondue, and really good crispy wafers. Ben La and Vinny weren't fans of the tarty flavors so I happily devoured the watermelon, strawberry scoops (Mueller, you would have loved it) while Ben La liked the caramel a lot more (Rach, you would have liked that one). Afterwards we went to "Mai", a very expensive store that uses parachute fabric to make purses to try to find a purse for Kristie. Unfortunately there weren't any cool new designs so they we decided to try Thuy Nga which is underneath the Saigon Opera House. Vinny didn't find anything but I found a great black and white silk dress blazer that was 70% off (we all know how I love to bargain shop). The original price was $195 and I only paid $65 for it :) Needless to say, I was a happy camper. We decided to end our day with $10 massages. The three of us were like Goldilocks and the 3 bears. Ben La thought the massage was too hard and it hurt, I thought it was just right, and Vinny kept saying it was too soft, the masseuse needed to use more pressure.

All in all, a great day filled with good wandering, great company, and awesome food (banh canh cua at Cho Benh Thanh)...