Day 22 October 17

Today was the day we were supposed to go on a dinner river cruise on the Saigon River. However, two days ago the person running it tried a bait-and-switch on us telling us that to be in the air-conditioned part of the boat, we had to pay $17 more each, and whoops, sorry we hadn’t told you when you booked in April. I immediately canceled with Viator and told the tour operator to stop bothering us with different solutions, all involving money. I can’t wait to write this review. Instead, I had the brilliant idea to walk to the Central Market, about ½ mile each way. It opens at 10 and after all, at ten it was only 88 degrees Fahrenheit and 90 % humidity.  By the time we got to the market, sweat was pouring off of us. The parts of the market we found contain nothing but Chinese imports, and cheap ones at that. We walked through a little way, accosted by merchants, constantly wanting to sell us junk. We left to walk back, and it was even hotter and more humid. On the way back we stopped for iced egg coffees, our first in Ho Chi Minh city.

The coolness of the coffees and the air conditioner helped cool us down, and we were able to go the rest of the way back to the hotel.

Our clothes were drenched but eventually dried out and after showers, we were human again. The egg coffee had filled us up, so we skipped lunch and, instead, went back to Hoa Túc for an early dinner   We started with stuffed apple snails and then Alan had sea bass with avocado salsa, and I had grilled chile and salt prawns. It was again a delicious meal. I later looked it up and it is on the Michelin app of restaurants to try in Ho Chi Minh City.

We went to bed fairly early as we were getting picked up at 8 AM for our cooking lesson.