These last few days in Ho Chi Minh City have been calm and relaxing. Hanging like a local. I stayed at Marc and Linh's apartment for a few days but moved to a hotel as they have other guests arriving today, as was planned before they offered their place to me. I bought them a nice bottle of wine to thank them for their amazing hospitality and moved to Saigon Bi Hotel, the same place I stayed at last week before I went to Hoi An. I'll still be hanging out with Marc and his crew, I'm sure. We have tickets for a big party at Apocalypse, the nightclub Linh loves. We've been there four times already and I'm happy to go back. Good times.

Last night, Phuong, a friend of Marc's friend Catherine, came over and cut my hair again. It's really short now, but she did a great job and fixed the disaster from earlier in the week. Apparently the back of my head looked like I was a monk. Not sure what that meant but it is fixed now. After the cut, we went to try to see Mission Impossible 3 (way cheaper to see films here than in Canada) but we didn't make it in time and wound up scooter joy riding all over the city and then hitting a couple more nightclubs (how many nightclubs can there possibly be in a city???). "America" was a fun place that played the kind of progressive house music I like. I felt a bit underdressed in my jeans, sleeveless shirt and run-down running shoes, but I felt like a bit of a celebrity there as I was one of very few white people, definitely the only blonde, and people stared at me the whole time I was there. Even the bouncers (quite literally less than half the size of bouncers in Toronto) gave me special attention. They shook my hand when I walked in, introducing themselves as they found us a table in the middle of the club where everyone could see us. It was a trip. Wish I got this kind of treatment and attention in Toronto.

I realize I have not mentioned much about the food. The Thai food was fantastic. More or less what you'd expect. Always good, usually with rice or noodles, pretty cheap, and full of flavor. Can't go wrong except when you forget to tell them not to make it too spicey. Double burn. The Cambodian food was a tasty mix of Thai and Indian, but it played evil tricks with my stomach and I ate mostly Western food there, in Western-owned cafes. The Vietnamese food has been absolutely amazing. I've been lucky to have Vietnamese people with me at almost every meal and they've done the restaurant picking and ordering. The food here is totally amazing. My stomach has been dealing with it perfectly well and the flavors are astonishing. The best part is the price. We've been going to very nice restaurants, eating huge feasts and drinking beers and fresh squeezed fruit juices, and the meal is never more than $4 a piece. The same feast in an equivalent restaurant in Toronto would be at least $50. I love it. For breakfast we go for "pho" which comes out to about $0.80 for a hearty noodle soup with fresh veggies and beef. Seems weird to eat hot soup for breakfast in a sweltering hot country, but it makes a lot of sense when you do it.

Just hanging out for the rest of the day. I've spent a lot of money on clothes and gifts but the prices are so great that I may spend even more just to save me from doing the same in Toronto for a long time. Anyone want anything in particular? I've already picked up some amazing gifts. I think Linds and Tim are gonna LOVE theirs (I know it is good because I want it and am already jealous I am giving it to them!).

Over and out,

R*