If you're walking down Dong Khoi, chances are you'll come across this government-run hotel and its restaurant, which will have a small Banh Mi cart out front. Banh Mi is a Vietnamese sandwich made out of various fillings inside a hollowed-out baguette. Greenleaf has pork, chicken and beef, and all three are absolutely delicious. At VND 31,000 for half a loaf (around 6 inches) it's definitely value for your money. My only regret is that we discovered this on our last day.

A bottle of honey is around $7-8, produced by the hardworking bees and packaged by the riverfolk of Vinh Long. It goes great with jasmine tea, adding just the right amount of sweetness, and you can try it for yourself before buying.

Home to a lot of the recommended tourists spots you'll see on the interwebs, District 1 boasts various hotels and posh stores as well. Dong Khoi is the main street, but other, smaller roads are worth exploring as well--who knows what you'll find! There are a lot of nice restaurants scattered throughout, in case you need a break.

Skip: A guided tour of the sights. Famous buildings like the Opera House, the Reunification Palace, Ben Thanh, City Hall, Notre Dame and the Post Office are all walking distance from each other. You'll be able to see the streets of Saigon up close and personal if you walk, and get to go at your own pace. Use the tour money for souvenirs or longer tours instead. (Remember to bring a map, though!)

It's crowded dark, and in the noontime, the heat can be hellish, but it's a one-stop spot for all your touristy needs, and otherwise. They've got conical hats, iPho T-shirts, woven bags, pearls, mangosteen, table runners, lacquerware, figurines, etc. You can spend an entire afternoon here. The prices may seem ridiculously high at first, but as in most flea markets, haggling is expected. There are several techniques, but use the one which best suits your personality. My mom prefers arguing, while I prefer walking away while the lady shouts lower prices after me.

Skip: The souvenir shops along Dong Khoi selling the same things, but at a fixed price way more expensive than what you can get at Ben Thanh.

I'm no food expert, but I do know that this was one of the most memorable foodtrips I've ever been on. The taste of everything HCM haunts me to this very day. It must be the fish sauce. My advice would be to sample as much of the food this city offers. Places we ate at: Ciao Cafe, Lemongrass Cafe, Quan An Ngon 168, Wrap & Roll, Green Leaf Cafe, and at a house in Vinh Long. We also had some chestnuts from Ben Thanh and Trung Nguyen coffee courtesy of our hotel. :)

Lastly--Things I didn't get to do, but wanted to:

1) Take a tour on the back of a Vespa--specifically, the Saigon After Dark tour.

2) PURCHASE SOME VIETNAMESE FISH SAUCE. A little dish of this was served with most of the food we had. It is the reason for Vietnamese deliciousness, methinks. Should be available at the nearest grocery.

3) Hoard Banh Mi and take it all home. (If only.)

We piled into the large white van labeled Hoi An Tours, and set off for a day of rivers and rice paddies. The two-hour ride to the town of Cai Be took us past miles and miles of fresh, green, extremely familiar scenery--farmers bending over rice paddies. It was reminiscent of the 12 hour road trip to Isabela we'd taken a few days before, the only difference being (1) the Vietnamese farmers had their signature conical hats and (2) they buried their dead in the middle of the field. I kid you not. A common sight rushing by the window was a grave marker, or a cluster of grave markers sticking right out of the green field. Said Mr. Cong: "They want to keep the family members close to them, so they remember, and they always happy."

At Cai Be, we boarded a boat to take us to the floating market, or what was left of it. I'd read that the market is at its most active at 6:30-8:30 in the morning, and it was around 9:30 when we got there, so all that was left was a handful of the larger boats selling pumpkins, watermelons, etc.

We stopped over at the village of Vinh Long to see how the riverside folk made their local products--honey, bee pollen, rice candies, wine, rice paper, and conical hats. We bought a bit of everything except the wine and the rice paper at the behest of Mr. Cong. The tea + honey was excellent, though. There's just something about Jasmine tea that draws you, I guess. Strewn about the place were various paintings, piles of tourist kitsch and little children. Pat and I found this aquarium a little way outside the house where they were making the products. It had one huge fish in it, the same sort they served for lunch later on, if I'm not mistaken.

Mr. Cong was relentless with the spewing information bit. We paddled down to another riverside house, this time with clay tiles on the roof and ornate wooden furniture. They brought out the traditional Vietnamese singers and musicians to play us three or four songs while we sipped more Jasmine tea and partook of fresh fruits. Memorable was this old man with a greying goatee, plucking at his one-stringed instrument. They had planting songs and couples-in-the-ricefield songs (sound familiar?) and all in all, I guess it was a good winding-down activity to end the tour with.

45 minutes downriver and we found ourselves on the other side of the Mekong. Mom needed to use the bathroom but opted to wait till we got to the hotel when Mr. Cong pointed out the nearest one. 2 hours of watching rice fields evolve into buildingscapes, lapsing in and out of sleep, munching on Vietnamese breadsticks brought us back to HCMC (Mr. Cong had since then plugged into his headphones) and safely back to the hotel.

A few hours later, the New Year festivities along Nguyen Hue began.

Tito JJ: Vietnam??

Mom: What are we going to do in Vietnam? Stare at the rice paddies?

I responded by frantically googling 'Things to do in Ho Chi Minh City.' Why HCMC instead of Hanoi? I haven't the faintest clue, actually. HCMC seemed more alive to me back then.

After spending hours on Agoda and TripAdvisor (vaguely entertaining, in a way I cannot qualify at the moment) and emailing various hotels who thanked me for my 'interesting' in their establishment, we finally launched into the air on a budget flight in the dead of night, on our way to the Land of the Lotus.