Today I leave Mui Ne for the long five hour drive back to Saigon. It’s still only 200kms ad it still takes five whole long hours - just doesn’t seem right! I’d recommend it as a place to stay if you want the beach, but not if you want “real Vietnam”, also it’s great for kitesurfing! The Sailing Club is also a good place to stay, great service, good rooms but the pool and beach area are a little on the small side, so you can feel a bit crowded if it’s busy. But the restaurant is really good, fusion food and the best breakfasts ever. The staff is also really nice and very helpful.
But back to the journey, on the way we stop for a loo break at a garage/cafe. You have to take your own shoes off before entering the loos and put on a pair of their white plastic sandals – not my favourite, having to wear shoes that thousands have worn before, but I thought that perhaps it was a good sign – if they went to this trouble for hygiene so they only had clean shoes on their floor, I was in for a clean loo – sadly my logic was wrong – obviously all hygiene efforts went into the sandals and not into the loos themselves....
This time in Saigon I decide to stay in the centre – I have stayed in the backpackers’ district, a local area and now right in the centre on the river. It’s here that you realise the city is changing. There are some really tall buildings going up and some very chic housing developments on the river. From the roof terrace of where I am staying I look down into a huge ”ground zero” like hole where the foundation are going in for another skyscraper. But the city here is still manic – still loads of motorbikes but also more cars, limos, taxis and tourists. Also the quotient of designer shops is on the up, another sign of a fast developing city. I have booked myself into the Saigon Grand Hotel, one of the original colonial hotels, where I am upgraded to the old wing. A beautiful room with dark wood original parquet floors, an ante room with huge chandelier before you go into your room, and large shuttered windows looking out onto the street. Given the city’s past, I guess this room could throw up some historical secrets. I nip into Jasper’s across the road from the hotel for dinner, and have the most un-Vietnamese dinner imaginable – St Patrick’s Day Sheperd’s Pie and cabbage – very nice it was too! The only thing Vietnamese about it was the large dish of honey that came with it – still not sure what I was supposed to do with it! But the young waitress, a part time student really wanted to practice her English, so we chatted for a while. Trying to explain what I did in my working life proved difficult – until I remembered my old Vietnamese – and remembered that Gucci was always “Goosey” – and like “why why” it worked!
