Yet another birthday dawns for Gill – this time in Saigon. The early birthday treat (apart from the cards and presents from home – the cool spray was much appreciated in this heat – thanks Mum!) was a decent latte at Highland Coffee (Saigon’s Starbuck’s). Coffee at our hotel is rather thick and made with sweetened (no choice on the sugar content) condensed milk, so a decent latte was a real treat… Our day is to be spent getting a real handle on the layout of the City, so we walk. We make our way to the Reunification Palace, an impressive 60’s icon, still in “mint” condition. This was the former seat of the South Vietnamese Government until a tank of the North Vietnamese army breached its gates on 30 April 1975, when the country was “reunited”, and the dream of Uncle Ho was realised (shame really, it was a bit late for him as he died in 1969). We decide that the top floor would make a good apartment here in Saigon and with the Dong exchange rate, we are currently working out whether our Dong billionaire status means they would accept an offer…. We then find our way to the Binh Noodle shop some way out of the main area. This is a basic noodle shop (and Ant risked the noodles and survived to tell the tale). It’s real claim to fame though is that it was the centre of undercover operations and planning by the Vietcong guerrillas during the war, all kinds of activities to attack the American supported South Vietnamese government were planned and plotted in this very shop, under the eyes of American journalists who had no idea what was going on upstairs! We then make our way to Notre Dame, the big cathedral that was shut for a while, so we thought it was good planning that the authorities had built the Diamond Department store, a good place for that other religion, shopping! The proper cathedral finally reopens so we do a bit of a speed sightsee in there (very plain as cathedrals go). We walk back towards our hotel and finish the day as we started at Highland Coffee with another newly discovered treat of fresh lime with sparkling water and sugar syrup – lovely! Gill’s birthday tea was at a fantastic place called Quan An Ngon. We got there just in time as the queues of expats and locals alike were building. Set in another old restored villa, with various cooking areas all around, we dined really well on local fare, and less local Chilean wine (we have tried the Vietnamese Dalat stuff – one glass, ok, one bottle, not ok!). Ant said the Lotus root salad was the best salad he had ever tasted. And the waiter arranged for “Happy Birthday” (in Vietnamese, but we recognise the tune) to be played. Ant however, failed miserably as the strippergram failed to arrive…. But reflecting on our newly realised billionaire status, we decide to end the day back at the Sheraton roof terrace, 23 storeys up, overlooking the whole city sparkling with lights laid out before us, after all what’s another million dong or so on a cocktail bill to us!
