The Saigon of Sarah

Good Morning, Vietnam! Despite the things I had heard, Saigon was actually pretty cool for a big city. MUCH BETTER than Hanoiying anyway…We had the whole day to explore until Erika had to head to the airport to catch her flight home. I actually was on a mission to take care of a few last errands before heading to Cape Town, one of them being to find a decent place to finally get my hair cut (after 2 ½ months in the sun and sand, I needed it big time).

We were up bright and early and went straight to the War Remnants Museum. Eeks! Talk about depressing and so rough to see. Originally called the War Crimes Museum, it’s a comprehensive collection of weapons, photos, planes, tanks, and documents of the Vietnam wars with the French and Americans. It was extremely eye opening (I vaguely remember much about what I had learned in school about the war), but also extremely controversial, giving a very skued side of the story and it’s funny; they call it the American War. I know there are two sides to all stories and Vietnam was far from innocent, but it was very hard to read all the articles and sickening to view all the photos of what our country and military were capable of. My main question was “why so much violence”? Even if we were getting attacked, there was still no need to use the force we did and the disgusting acts of torture. I can’t even fathom how it must feel for the thousands of Vietnam vets that visit it each year.

The rest of the day was nonstop for me. After the museum we had a nice lunch at this great little café Charity found in her travel book. We shared a few dishes, including a peanut butter, bacon, cheese, and tomato Panini. Sounds gross but it was to die for! I then headed to the nicest hotel in town, the Park Hyatt, to see if they had any hair appointments available. I was in luck because it was 2pm and they were able to take me at 3pm. Even better, the price was half what I would pay in Chicago! Having an hour to kill, one can only guess what I wanted to do. I headed to the concierge and asked if there were any shops in the area I could run to before my appointment. As I finished my sentence, this beautiful, fit, stylish woman came up to me and with her British accent, she offers to help me. She had been living with her husband (a high end furniture designer) in Saigon for 10 years. She was into fashion and personal styling and mentioned her clients included top executives. She told me how she knew what it was like for a young girl like me to want to be sent in the right direction when it comes to shopping. Her driver came and picked us up, dropped us a few blocks away and she showed me this great shop that I wouldn’t have recognized otherwise. All the clothes were hand embroidered and were gorgeous. She showed me a few pieces she just loved, gave me her contact info and directions to another one of her favorites, and she was off. Just like that. What are the chances? My own personal shopper in Saigon. Come to find out later that everyone knows Saigon Sally. Ha!

My hair turned out ok. They guy sort of went a little scissor happy on me. Let’s just say it hasn’t been this short in awhile. It’s growing on me (no pun intended), not the fact that it’s a couple of inches shorter, but more because it is so much healthier now. Message, nails, hair done all in the same week, I was all set to begin the next part of my journey.

Charity, Erika and I had one last drink that night to send Erika off. I can’t believe how fast the time went. It feels like just yesterday that Erika and I were planning for the trip and now she’s gone. Charity and I were ready to hit the town. We called the contact Duc from Hoi An had set us up with, we met him out at the Park Hyatt bar, which was so swank. We met some other people at the bar and headed dancing – something that I couldn’t wait to do one more time before I left. We had so much fun, but it didn’t make for a very nice 30 hours of traveling to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a 12 hour layover and then another 10 hour flight to Cape Town. HEADACHE!