Having no fixed plan for today, only a rough idea of what I wanted to do, I was happy to not bother setting my alarm and instead let my body get the sleep it felt it needed. As it turned out, that was around 9am and shortly after my friend J' invited me to share breakfast with her and her work colleagues who were also staying in the hotel.
After breakfast J' and I took a short taxi ride into the city centre where she knew of a tour company that had been recommended to her and as both her and my national Vietnamese friend S' both had to work during the day I felt happy to book some day trips knowing that I could still spend time with them after I returned from my trip.
Once that was taken care of, we found that I was too late for any day trips today and the only afternoon half day trip they had was a city tour, which I could easily do tomorrow, so I decided to just spend the time back in my room sorting out my photos, my blog and my laundry.
I did try and find a copy of the film Good Morning Vietnam, but the dvd store did not have it in stock, so instead I bought a good quality copy of the Quiet American and decided that I would watch it when I found the time.
Around 6pm S' arrived on her little scooter and together we went to a nice fancy restaurant where the waiters party trick was to throw dishes of fried rice across the restaurant at each other, catching the solid rice cakes in flat plates and then after tossing them into the air, catching them before finally cracking them open with a knife as they are served to the customers. It was a little cocktail-ish', and the added thrill that the hard rice cakes sounded like they were plates being smashed onto the floor each time they were caught. The meal itself was great and I ate like a pig, stuffing myself and gorging on the wonderful traditional Vietnamese cooking that S' was kind enough to order for us both.
After the meal we had time to go to watch a movie and saw the new Liam Nielson flick, which was a lot shorted than I figued and after it finished it was still not yet even 9pm, so instead of going back to the hotel we sat, drank a coffee outside and chatted for awhile. The one thing i clearly remember about the cinema experience was that as soon as the film finished the projectionist did not even wait for the credit to start before pulling the plug and switching on the normal lighting.
I cannot thank J's and S' enough as not only were they my guides for the day, but for some reason they both insisted on paying for me as well as them, and I felt like a truly kept man, not that I am complaining mind you, I just felt it was a little weird thats all.
Wanting to quench my thirst for opera I asked S' if she knew of any theatre where I could watch a production of "Miss Saigon" but alas it was either not on or she had no idea of where it was, so instead we agreed that come Friday we would all meet up and sing Karaoke til out throats got sore.
My trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels would be starting early tomorrow morning so I knew that I could not stay out too long as I would need a good nights rest, so we said goodnight and I crashed asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
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