The City Tour / The Rooftop Bar / We're Vietnamese Chefs!
We squeezed A LOT into our first day in Vietnam. We were in the Intercontinental Saigon's dining room by 7 am for our provided buffet breakfast because we were schedule to meet with our Avalon representative and meet our fellow guests at 8 am. The meeting provided three surprises. First, our program director had a "serious family problem" that came up at 2 am last night, and he would have to leave us (we later discovered his father was in poor health), so he interested us to our new program director; secondly, we discovered there are only 26 of us in our group and who will be onboard the Siem Reap! We knew it would be a small group with a capacity of 36 on the ship, but even fewer. And the third thing was that there are only about half a dozen in "our family" as we were termed by our new director who are older than we are.....in fact there are a couple of college kids with their parents/grandparents. We got some particulars on what would happen over the next couple of days before we board the ship and then we were off on a walking tour of the city.
One of the first things we noticed last night coming to the hotel and out our window this morning was the bikes! We were told today there are over 8 million "hondas" as they are called in the greater metro area. And all day while we walked and then traveled by bus people were scooting by inches from us on the sidewalk, in the road and between the cars. They even have Uber hondas! Now THAT would take some courage! One of our first stops on the tour was the original post office. Built by a French architect in the mid-1800s it is a favorite stop for tourists. It's a gorgeous building and still a functioning post office. Inside one of the highlights were two rows of phone booths on either side - for those of you too young to remember, there was once a day when you had to use a land line to make any phone call. It was here that the journalists would line up each day throughout the Vietnam War to call in their stories. One set of phone booths still stands with the phones inside, but on the other side of the building they have all been converted into ATM machines! We also walked past Independence Hall with the large statute of "Uncle Ho" - Ho Chih Minh, the leader of the revolution and the North Vietnamese during the war and first president of the unified country.
We then had a set of buildings pointed out to us - first the big blue sky scraper, but this was just for references. Se the older building in front? Recognize it? I didn't at first, but then our tour guide pulled up a famous photo on his iPad......now you'll recognize it.
This famous photograph of the fleeing South Vietnamese and Americans into army helicopters as the North Vietnamese were swarming into the city made headlines everywhere and inspired the musical "Miss Saigon." And here was the very rooftop (you can see the little building on top that is still there). Something to see for those of us who lived during the war. Next up we headed to the Rex Hotel. Again, for those of you in our age group you may not recognize the hotel name, but it was the famous "Rooftop Bar" where the journalists would meet for happy hour to exchange stories and it was dubbed the "Five O'Clock Follies." In my research for what we might see in the city this was one I was very hopeful we'd visit. And we not only saw it but got to go up to the bar and were treated to our choice of a drink!
On nearly international trip we've taken, and in nearly every town or city one of the tour highlights seems to always be the market. Such was the case again today after we left the hotel.
The final stop of our first day's adventure was to an authentic Vietnamese Cooking School. And YES we had to cook our own lunch. It's kind of ironic isn't it.....we paid a lot of money for the privilege to cook our own food? LOL. But it was really an interesting and amazing experience. First we had all the ingredients in front of us for our ginger chicken main entree. Then the chef walked us through the demonstration, then turned us loose to cook our own main dish! Each one of us had the chicken in a pot that had an individualized number so YOU had to eat what YOU prepared :) You'll note our very attractive chef hats (and aprons!). Then we were taught to make spring rolls and noodle soup. Everything turned out great and was very delicious. Finally, at the end of the meal we were given an oral quiz! We all passed with flying colors (shocking I know) and were presented with a certificate identifying our new-found talent. It was also very interesting that they gave us a recipe book; on the cover of the book is their web address and we were told that if we came across any native dish while in the country that we really enjoyed, if we took a photo and sent it to them with the name of the dish they would mail us back the recipe! It was a great first day. This evening we are being taken out as a group for a special "Welcome Dinner" courtesy of Avalon Waterways.
The final stop of our first day's adventure was to an authentic Vietnamese Cooking School. And YES we had to cook our own lunch. It's kind of ironic isn't it.....we paid a lot of money for the privilege to cook our own food? LOL. But it was really an interesting and amazing experience. First we had all the ingredients in front of us for our ginger chicken main entree. Then the chef walked us through the demonstration, then turned us loose to cook our own main dish! Each one of us had the chicken in a pot that had an individualized number so YOU had to eat what YOU prepared :) You'll note our very attractive chef hats (and aprons!). Then we were taught to make spring rolls and noodle soup. Everything turned out great and was very delicious. Finally, at the end of the meal we were given an oral quiz! We all passed with flying colors (shocking I know) and were presented with a certificate identifying our new-found talent. It was also very interesting that they gave us a recipe book; on the cover of the book is their web address and we were told that if we came across any native dish while in the country that we really enjoyed, if we took a photo and sent it to them with the name of the dish they would mail us back the recipe! It was a great first day. This evening we are being taken out as a group for a special "Welcome Dinner" courtesy of Avalon Waterways.
The last note for today is that we met nearly every one of the 24 others on our tour and EVERYONE was really nice, friendly. You never know when you're going to be "locked in" with a small group of people for such a short period of time, but as Kim and I agreed - first impressions were a giant thumbs up!
LATE ADDITION.......
So tonight we ate at the private Ly Club - a French villa/chateau which served a "fusion" of Vietnamese and French cuisine. It was such a stylish setting, live piano player with dinner and drinks compliments of Avalon as a "Welcome Dinner." But certainly the "WOW" moment of the night came when we left and it was drizzling.....the staff was lined up at the entrance with umbrellas and took us one-by-one to our private coach. VIP treatment!
LATE ADDITION.......
So tonight we ate at the private Ly Club - a French villa/chateau which served a "fusion" of Vietnamese and French cuisine. It was such a stylish setting, live piano player with dinner and drinks compliments of Avalon as a "Welcome Dinner." But certainly the "WOW" moment of the night came when we left and it was drizzling.....the staff was lined up at the entrance with umbrellas and took us one-by-one to our private coach. VIP treatment!
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