My 1 month in Saigon is now over. There is another trip scheduled here, but I will send the two boys over as I have other things to Manage. This has been an awesome trip, and I have enjoyed myself here, even more so as Sara is here with me to experience it. My top 6 things to do in Saigon are as follows :-

6) Squeeze into the Chu Chi Tunnels
5) Take some nightshots at the back of Notra Dame Church
4) Eat Pho, Bun Cha, and all other sorts of Rice Based Noodles
3) Take a motorbike ride to Vung Tao
2) Pamper yourself, get a Massage, Padicure, Manicure, the works
1) Shop! Shop! Shop! Its a shoppers Paradise!

On the last Sunday we were here, Sara and I decided we just wanted to pamper ourselves. We had already gone for a Manicure, Padicure and Hair wash earlier in the day, and we wanted to do something else next. Now there are a few types of Massage places here in Saigon. There are the professional spa’s and then there are the dodgy ones. How do you tell the difference? Well, one basic way is to look at what the massure is wearing. Tight red short dresses and skirts are a clear negative sign. Go for places where the staff are dressed in some form of uniform, and they don’t exactly look like supermodels. I know that sounds a little discrimitory, but the usual hanky panky places don’t have staff who look plain. Second thing is to look for the customers who go there. If the place only has men, and no women patrons, its a safe bet its has additional items not listed on the menu. Sara and I went to this place near Binh Thanh market, which offered Hot Stone massage and foot massage for USD 28. We managed to get ourselves a 20% discount thanks to Sara’s excellent nego skills, and then we were treated to one of the best massages I have ever had. I had 3 people massage me at the same time for a period of 2 hours!! You cannot get this in Malaysia or even Thailand for the price we paid! And they used Essencial oils! They also gave us great face scrubs! Wow! Heavenly!

Over the weekend, See Yau, Fang, Sara and I took on a day trip to the Mekong delta, the cost USD10 per person, purchased at Sinh Cafe. They brought us on a 3 hour bus ride, where we then got onto boats and visited the Mekong Delta’s Floating market and then ate a simple lunch on an Island on the Mekong River. We visited a Rice Paper Factory, A Coconut Candy Factory and then visited a local town. It was pretty worth the money we paid, though I was not particularly impressed with the floating market. The trip gave us a glimsp of how local’s live on the Mekong Delta, which is a very humble and simple life.

I was at first tempted to do the above treatments at the Sexy Girl, men only saloon, with Sara’s blessing as well, just to see how it would be like, but then I decided to go with Sara and get it done professionally at a Unisex place, which to my surprise had more male customers than female anyways. Early Sunday morning, Sara, Fang and myself walked to the place and asked for the above mention treatments. Actually I was a little shy to ask for a shave, and finally Sara ordered it for me It was the first time I had a Padicure, which I must say was rather fun. The whole treatment was extremely cheap! Manicure and Padicure was VND60,000 and the hair wash was VND80,000! Its definitely something to do in Vietnam!

Seriously I am really not sure if I have bought the genuine stuff or not. But I could not think of things that my mummy and aunties might appreciate. I paid usd14 for 500g of dried scallop (big one) and usd43 for a box of bird nest. Can anyone tell me if I had overpaid ?