Arrival to HCMC

After 14 hours of flying ✈️ with a 1-hour stop in Doha 🇶🇦, I finally arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon 🇻🇳.
Lio has gone to Terminal 3, even though I told him multiple times I was arriving at Terminal 2 😅 — so in the end, I’m the one waiting for him at the airport.

He finally shows up and I can't hold back my tears when I see him again after all this time — almost 18 months 🥺. We hug for a long time before even asking how the other is doing 🤍.

We grab a taxi towards District 1 🚕, where we'll take the recently opened metro 🚇 all the way to Thảo Điền (District 2), where he lives. We catch up as much as we can, but as soon as we arrive at his place, we take a nap 😴. I'm exhausted, and he naps as part of his routine anyway — so the plan is clear.

After waking up, he takes me to a new sauna 🧖‍♀️🧖‍♂️ that just opened in the neighborhood. It also has ice baths and hot pools ❄️🔥, but we didn’t realize and didn’t bring swimsuits, so we stick to the sauna and showers. After two cycles of sauna, we get a pineapple juice 🍍🥤 in the relaxation area and then head to an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant 🍣 to absolutely stuff our faces.

We decide to go for a drink afterwards and make our way to Pasteur Beers 🍺, the place where we met back in April 2024… 💫Read more