Travel to Saigon Day 2 : Photos and Story

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Travel to Saigon Day 2 : Photos and Story

Hello travelers and friends.

It's hard to believe that Saigon was once known as a garden city. Saigon, which was founded in the 17th century, was once a beautiful country filled with lush vegetation, beautiful temples, and a bustling populace.

Now, the city is one of the most polluted and chaotic in the world.
Everywhere you look, there are the deep hallways and dark steps of an old Saigon. Increasingly, however, you'll also find a new Saigon that is rapidly changing.

Saigon is a city unlike any other.
It has a deep history and a haunting past.
It has an energy that is hard to describe.
It is a city where the past and present both live.
And it is a city where visitors can get an experience unlike any other.

My second day in this city was a mix of walking and a lot of night-life. Here is the journey from day 2 in Saigon.

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It was a bit of a late start to the day, about 9:30 am when I got out of bed today (If you read yesterdays post HERE you will see why. Lol. But still, the sun was out.

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Here is even a picture of your boy ready for the day... well, sort of ready for the day.

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The majority of today was spent walking into dark pathways and sketchy buildings, only to discover magical gems, gems of the city.

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Some times it takes a radical different way to think about places to embrace something that looks sketchy, but is not. Walking in here, the sub-conscious was saying, yup, you will get mugged here. But nope... It was a nice place.

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Entering into La Cuisine on the second floor was a magical experience. It was a gem.

Here is its location : https://goo.gl/maps/4hkmByvXzgeaEBzo7

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I had a breakfast sandwich with poached eggs and a coffee that ROCKED MY WORLD. It was so dam tasty... IDK what to say but YUMM... They had a wide selection of other tasty treats that also ROCKED. Oh, that is also Gabby in the backgorun, of my the people I was traveling with on this adventure.

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We then had some fun with an impromptu photo shoot that was, well.. Sweet. HAHAHA.

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And this one of Eric, that was more moody...

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And, street cats... these sleek animals roaming the halls, popping out like ninja, then vanishing just as fast. They truly have adopted to be cute, but not accessible. Hmm.. I wounder how many mice they eat in a week?

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We then proceeded to walk to ANOTHER COFFEE place... OMG...Tooo much coffee for this guy, but hey, at least o the way I meet this cool looking fella, he just stared with wide eyes at the crazy people walking by... also, what a cool mustache he has!

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Here is the next dark and sketchy hallway we walked into. Just an accent into the heavens of a dingy building.

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The old wooden steps leading up, falling apart in a 100 year old building. So many people must have walked up these and still do today.

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This next place was called "The Workshop" and was a bit of walk to accent the 4 flights to the top, but worth it.

Here is its location : https://goo.gl/maps/BdtZSE59R4VPb8ZK9

Eric and Gabby also had fun with making faces.

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After we walked back down and onto the strees to walk home, but the stairs were just too cool. Such history, so mystrious.

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On the ways back we passed the "Coffee Hotel", a place we will be going to tomorrow. Each floor, each room, a different coffee shop!

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HEre is a photo of the crew. Man, was it HOT... not the photo, the weather, but yes, the photo too.. we are hot ok.. deal with it.

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We headed back to the hotel, where I graded my laptop and Gabby and I headed out to do some co-working. We went to another place called "The Hidden Elephant Books & Coffee".

Location here : https://goo.gl/maps/w3LhDEoMX2q7q3vm9

Again, like the other places, it was a splunk into a dark place, before finding the gem.

looks welcoming right?

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But when you walked up 3 flights, you found a nice place to chill and work.

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It so easy to fall inlove with the charm of the old and new mixed together, the hallways, the grim and the light.

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We stayed and worked for a few hours at this location. I typed up my article for the day for @dbuzz and wrote my person article for the day. After a few hours we got the need to eat and headed out again for lunch.

Heading down the street we went to a vegetarian place that was epic!

The restaurant was "Nhà Hàng Chay Ngọc Thọ" .

Located here : https://goo.gl/maps/ZniCwoxbXr3pcSir9

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They even had a cute puppy that came to say hi!

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After we finished we walked back to the hotel to rest up a bit and then head out for the evening time. Crossing the streets is no joke, you got to be brave.

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After a nap and shower we headed out to Little Japan about 8 pm. This location was many bright lit streets filled with places that were calling out to us to dine in. Eric however had another GEM to share with us.

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Down some steps was a packed place, and we soon discovered why.

I am sorry, I don't have the location for this one, :( please don't be mad, I just don't remember its name HAHAHA.

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We ordered a BIG bottle of the Saka and the night started to get wierd.

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The food however was great. I even broke my no meat rule to sample some of these treats. and OMG, the taste was amazing. But, no more.. I got to stick to only veggies and egg moving foward.

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We order a Mushroom hot pot as well that had flavor like I never had before so dam tasty, I would have this again, and again, and again... but that's it... only 3 agains, then it's onto something else. ;)

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After the bottle of Sake and another friend joining us, we headed out to get some frozen treats in a very local place. We also bought some lotto tickets, I hope we win!

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It is a bowl of ice, fruit, and other tasty good things.

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We stayed here for a bit before heading out... yet again. This time to another bar that was hidden, as you guessed it, down some sketchy paths and up some stairs.

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but the door in was nice and inside was great!

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We ended up meeting more frends here and all have more drinks.. at this point my eyes were getting heavey bu the night was not done yet.

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The bar was quite nice, we were some of the only western people in this pace as well.

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After this we piled on to a motor bike in true Vietnamese style and headed to the final place for the night.

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So again, the place we went was down a dark and very inviting hallway. Would you walk into this place to go to a bar?

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The bar is called "The Snuff Box"

Here is its location : https://goo.gl/maps/rhKHQFjFCf3vtCeP6

You go in, and up some sketchy steps. If you did not know it was their, you would miss it. Like do you see a bar here?

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Nope but there was a very trendy cool bar here.

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Here we had some fancy drinks that had smoke and taste.

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And one that came in a tresure box as well. So cool!!

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This dark and moody place was nice. Icould see it being a good haunt when you wante to chill and be low key.

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At around 1 am, I was done... so tired... Gabby and I headed out while Eric, the mad man he is stayed back to enjoy the late night. Walking out of the bar, you are again greeted with the skeytcy feeling of it..

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We got back to the Hotel before the very heavy rains started.

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Phew, what a full day. I think I was sleeping by 1 or 1:30 am... just so tired... got to find time for naps tomorrow I think.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post. Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions. And, as always, thanks for reading!! Get up, get out and go explore!!

Much Love
:)

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