The road to Saigon

This morning was another train day. The train ride was only 7.5 hours from Nha Trang to Saigon, so nothing too extreme. And the train was only five minutes behind schedule, which given the tain had come all the way from Hanoi, was pretty good.

Unfortunately for Courtney, the train ride was not particularly pleasant. SHe had a pretty bad headache that had come on about two hours after we left the hotel. The one thing about the heat, is that you have to be careful with your hydration, and your salt intake.

The day before, we had done some aerobics in the hotel gym, and it was warm. There was a rather disgusting amount of sweat on the floor when we were done. Courtney had unfortunately not recovered sufficiently well from that session, and it came back to bite her the following day - today. And a train is no place to be feeling wretched. They are constantly rocking, they are loud, and they are bright, from all the windows.

When we arrived in Vietnam, we decided that the best thing to do would be to get to the hotel, have some dinner, and get Courtney to bed. That would allow her to reset, and be fit and well for the next day.

Checking into our hotel, we remembered that we had booked a room with no window. Given Courtney's condition, this was ideal, as there was no chance of any light pollution making her feel any worse than she already was.

Next we had an early dinner, at about 1730 - 1800, at a nearby Malaysian restaurant. We decided that we would be back to eating all Vietnamese tomorrow. The food was pretty average, and a bit overpriced by Vietnames standards, but given we are now in Saigon, the most wetsern city of the courntry, we weren;t sure if the price difference was just as rersult of a 'capital city' effect.

Having eaten Courtney, was feeling a bit better, and we went for a brief walk to get a quick look at our surroundings, ready for the next day. The biggest thing was the Ben Thanh Market, which sold everything from clothes, to electronics to gold, in addition to the ordinary fresh food and dry food. It was pretty touristy, but no a whole lot less touristy than Nha Trang. That is a very good thing.

After our quick look around, we were back at the hotel, and planning for tomorrow. It was still a very early night, and a very uneventful day.Read more