The last night came, besides doing the usual Ben Thanh night market, another visit to the Saigon Market for H's last minute frantic hunt, H is done for the night. On the long walk this evening, I found a cheap box of Ginger tea and ended up with an enormous "size of a man's fist" bun 包 (inside: meat, vegetables and a salted egg yolk) and a grapefruit shake for dinner.Being the last night in Saigon and not wanting to leave without another drink, I rang up a couchsurfer M who worked in the city. He was nearby, in a pub, doing some work and having a drink. So I decided to head there alone and well, have a last drink for the trip. It gave me a hard time to locate the pub which is off a small alley! Phew, luckily I found it through a funny incident (through some people in another pub thought that I was preying for a boyfriend?!).
At Le Pub. A little accident got me acquainted with Trung, a Vietnamese and the pub's manager. His cigarette has burnt a little hole in my top, I wasn't furious (quite surprisingly). Instead I decided to lessen his guilt by asking him to buy me a drink, and so it got us talking as M was busy sorting out some work. M's friend bought me another drink. 2 free drinks, one meal (which I ended up short of 4000 VND as I wasn't expecting myself to eat initially... but got away with it with the manager). I decided to head back to get a couple of hours of sleep and do the final packing. It was then Trung offered to give me a motorbike ride back to my hotel which is about 10mins walk away.
Absolutely beautiful ending. Nice country, wonderful people... I'm a little sad I met these people a little late, as it could be a start to some nice Saigon parties. But rest assured, I'll be back some day.
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