This day was meant for recovery. However, in the morning, we decided to go to a brunch at the Boat House Restaurant. How hungover were we? There’s only one picture and it’s not even of the food. Gasp.

Anyways, the food and drinks must have been good and not very memorable. Although, now that I think back on it, it was probably delicious since most hangover meals are delicious. Right? Whatever.

After brunch, went home and napped. Then woke up to eat more. We decided to eat frog porridge. Charlie loves it. I just ate it as sustenance.

I got to visit the Crescent Mall. It was… a mall. Enough about that.

Charlie got us tickets to the Saigon Heat basketball game. It was actually quite interesting to watch, mainly because it felt like we were at a mediocre high school basketball game. But kudos to the MC to making it as exciting as it was!

After all that excitement, we took it easy for the rest of the day. Until we got hungry. Then it became a drink and eat breakfast before going home kind of night. It all started with a simple request to eat some different street food for dinner. I believe we went to a few places and then ended up at a microbrew called Biacraft. This is where Chuon fell asleep in my lap and I got my most liked Tinder profile picture. Look at how cute we look.

On the way home, we had the genius idea of grabbing some soju and beer for home. It’s cheap and you get drunk. Who doesn’t like being a cheap date? Anyways, getting drunk quickly leads to more drinking. So, the night quickly escalated to us visiting Lush Bar, followed by Go 2 Bar, then eating breakfast. I can’t recall exactly what happened at the bars, but I remember dancing and laughing. A lot. Successful night.

I remember this day pretty well. It was the day Will and I went to see the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels were dug out by the Vietnamese soldiers to create secret pathways to fight the Americans. It took 2 hours to get to this place, which included a car ride plus a boat ride. Charlie could not believe we made it to the tour since we had to get up at 6am. Let’s say that I agree. It took a miracle to get me up and onto a vehicle. I did not feel well from the night before.

Got to say though, it was totally worth it. The tour was excellent, in my opinion, and I had a great time. I’d write more, but too tired at the moment. Maybe more tomorrow.

Day 2 in Vietnam brought the arrival of Will. Everyone loves will. Who wouldn’t love this guy?

This meant that I had someone to do touristy things with while Charlie worked. We actually only did one thing that day, which was to visit the War Remnants Museum. This displayed the Vietnam War. The most important thing was to note that I got to see it through the eyes of the Vietnamese. Let’s just say, the United States didn’t look so great and Agent Orange was really inhumane.

Another lesson I learned in Vietnam was that people do not have the right of way on the street. Only mass and velocity matters. So you have to dodge motorbikes, cars, and busses if you want to cross the street. Will and I adapted very well to this. (Note: I was going to upload a video of us crossing a street and dodging vehicles, but apparently I need to pay more to do this. Since I don’t want to pay more yet, it’s just not going up. Just imagine Frogger but replace him with a human.)

Later that evening, we all drank and had a great time.

I think this will be a pretty decent way to start an everyday blog. Two years ago, on this date January 11, 2019, I started my Southeast Asia travels by arriving in Saigon, Vietnam. Luckily, Charlie was already there and offered to house me for my time there. It’s hard to think back about a time so long ago. Good thing we have digital cameras and I’m one of those guys who just takes pictures of anything and everything. I should learn how to put photos on here, but I’ll figure that out later.

The first thing I remember learning in Vietnam was that a.) it was hot and humid and my California body did not like it and b.) there are motorbikes everywhere. It’s the main method of transportation, and it made sense. The city is so congested, you wouldn’t be able to move around easily with a car. In fact, there are uber-like services with motorbikes instead of cars! Gets you to your destination much quicker. I thought that I’d never complain about traffic ever again. And then I moved to LA and realized that traffic just sucks everywhere.

Charlie took me to lunch as soon as I arrived. I thought we ate a lot. Somehow the bill came out to a ridiculous amount of 7 USD. How is food so cheap here, I asked myself. And then promptly forgot to do any research to answer my own question even though I had a computer in my hand. (Mental note: answer your own questions, dummy.) After lunch, I got to meet Charlie’s CoderSchool team and rest a bit in their office. Nice, talented team, who I’d get to know better in the coming days. Who I did get to meet and hang out with right away was Charlie’s dog, Chuon. I forget what his name means, but he was a tiny, cute, annoying dog. We got along pretty well. I don’t have a great picture of him from this day, so here’s a not so great picture of Charlie.

Now, I should be honest and say that I’m not going to try to make every part of my trip sound interesting. There are many times when an event is uneventful. Like this afternoon of walking to the Saigon River. It gave a chance for Charlie and I to chat, and for Chuon to get a nice walk. I have some pictures of the river and billboards of Heineken. Why? I have no idea.

Anyways, the rest of the day was not filled with anything more than just catching up with Charlie. Oh and I got a haircut.