Another rainy morning, it had been raining in Saigon for a straight three days so far.
The most important thing of the day was to pay the office of Sinh Tourist a visit and had all the bus tickets dealt. Though I had booked five tickets on the Internet beforehand (HCMC-Da Lat-Nha Trang-Hoi An-Hue-Hanoi)
but the website sent me an e-mail saying that I should have the receipt printed out before the actual dates of taking the buses, since no print shops were to be found around the residence, I made up my mind to go straight to the office and let the clerks do their job.
Sinh Tourist was just on De Tham street but with some distance from Bizu. I held the umbrella, but was still dripping wet from the big rain by the time I arrived at the office. I left my umbrella and entered the office, a clerk greeted me warmly and started speaking long sentences of Vietnamese...
I was in a daze, and finally I interrupted him nicely with English and he pointed me to a counter on the opposite side of the room.
An old lady was in charge of the tickets, and she declared to see my passport and credit card. I had left my passport at Bizu for deposit on my first day of arrival, so I had no choice but to trod back to the hotel, in the heavy ran, retrieved my passport and came back to the office with my clothes totally wet.
The old lady printed out 10 tickets and told me to sign on them after confirming my identity, and kept five while leaving me with the rest.
As I shoved my tickets into the envelope, I heard Mandarin spoken nearby, or I thought. Turning my head, I came face to face with five girls who were in heavy discussion of how they can buy the tickets. Then I heard one of the girls' light whisper: he's got a Taiwan passport! That's when they surrounded me and started asking me questions, about when I arrived and where would I go next, what's fun in Saigon, etc. And since none of them could really speak much English, except for simple terms, I offered to help them out and they were thrilled... yeah, basically jumping up and down.
Well, it's always great to meet your countrymen abroad, and a pleasure to offer assistance.
They tried persuading me about joining them for lunch, but since I already had lunch plans in search of the famous Pho, I rejected sadly.
I strode back to Bizu and returned my passport to the counter, my heart was finally settled back to its place once the communications had been dealt. I had looked up some information about the local cuisine Pho, and most people had recommended Pho 24 or Pho 2000, but the true legend of Pho in Ho Chih Min City lies at the booth of Pho Hung, which was much celebrated by both the locals and foreigners.
I got a bit lost in the rain after some strolling around, and finally came across a Co Op Mall (basically for the locals) and went inside to take shelter from the rain.
I bought some cookies, a bottle of green apple+kiwi+grape juice and another bottle of orange twister juice for tomorrow's trip. It felt good after some shopping of snacks before re-entering the rain. I looked to my right after coming out of the store, just to check for the incoming traffic, before catching a glimpse of a sign that said: Pho Hung...
Oh my god! The legendary Pho booth in Saigon, and I was just a road away from it without actually trying to look it up on the map! What a coincidence.
I quickly crossed the street and ordered one hot bowl of duck Pho, which smelled so great that my tummy rumbled. (The booth was located in a small valley, many steel tables laying around and full of people)
Brussels and basil were free, and there were even lemon juice and chili for spices. I threw in a bit of each and had a great meal! Truly amazing, the legend. And it only costed about 35000 Dun, which was about 50 NT.
I guessed, I had no more regret here in Saigon after enjoying such a delicate and fascinating meal.
But still, Laksa was my top 1 cuisine XD
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