Ho Chi Minh•day 2

Today was another super chill day but really nice! We woke up again in time for breakfast at the hostel but decided to lay back down after eating. I don't think we realized how exhausted we actually were from everything that we've been doing, so it's been really nice to just have some down time! We got up and moving around noon which is so unlike me! Gabby was worried that I was ready and waiting for her but I had been sleeping too! :) 

 

We headed out to find a little cafe we had read about called ID Cafe. It was such a good find!! We had our first Vietnamese style coffee here and it was absolutely delicious! I'm craving one now as I'm writing this! We also both got our first Banh Mi sandwiches! We sat at this coffee shop for hours just enjoying the weather and each other's company! 

We decided to walk down to the really popular market and on the way we passed by a really neat street food market. We had just eaten but we walked around and checked out all the food and then decided to sit and have a strongbow. We wanted to come back here for dinner so we had quite a bit of time to kill. We drank our beers and played a few rounds of cards before walking down to the shopping market. 

 

It reminded me a lot of the markets in Bangkok...tons of the same little trinkets at every 3rd stall. Gabby bought a couple things and I just trailed behind her. She is definitely the shopper! :) 

 

After we left the market we just walked around the streets checking everything out with nowhere specific to go. As we were walking we came across this huge, beautiful park! It was so green and spacious and there were so many people being active! Such a change of scenery from Thailand! People running, walking, playing badminton, practicing Kung fu (or something of the sort), stretching, doing yoga and using the exercise equipment. 

 

We walked around the park for quite a while before finding a bench to sit and relax on for a while. It was so nice and the temperature was perfect! Around 6:00 we decided we would head back to the street food market and grab dinner. 

 

We were so hungry by this point that it took forever to decide what we actually wanted. I decided on morning glory with beef($3.30). 

 

It was covered with peanuts and really tasty! We got a couple more strongbows to wash it down! For $1.30 you really can't beat it! The seating is just a bunch of picnic tables so we just grabbed a little open section. A girl from Canada ended up sitting down next to us and we chatted for over an hour. She was really sweet and down to earth! She had been living/working in Australia for a year and then had been traveling for the last 6 months with about 6 more to go! She gave us so much awesome information on things to look into and we shared some information about Thailand and India! It's really neat to meet people that have the same mindset and values as your traveling. Great connections to have and friends to run into down the road! After dinner we walked back towards the hostel. It was quite a far walked but we made it with no problems and never got lost. We saw parts of HCM that we hadn't seen yet which was nice! 

Gabby's friend from Seattle flew in tonight so we went to the airport around 11:00 to pick her up! I was super excited to finally meet her because Gabby has said so many great things about her! We swooped her up around 11:45 and got on the bus back into town. She had only eaten airplane food for the last 24+ hours so we got closer to our hostel and found a place to grab beers and food! Her first meal in Vietnam may or may not have been Mexican! 👍🏼😁 I knew I liked her! We got back to the hostel around 1:30am and headed to bed because we had to be up early and back at the airport in the morning!