Day 7

Today is going to be a more relaxed day. As soon as we get out, we go pick up Til’s ex-girlfriend Maxi who arrived yesterday to HCMC from her around the world travel. We go for breakfast to a coffee shop and shrimp noodles are today’s menu. We stay for a bit and then take the kids home as we’re going to visit the temple where Carlos and Xuan got married.

The temple is in the other side of Saigon River and the bike ride until there is another experience. We pass by people leaving right next to garbage and dirt and clothes drying in the bins, small streets where only a motorbike can pass through...

The temple is smaller than the one of Xuan’s family but it’s beautiful and people always make us feel welcomed.

They offer us tea and coconut sweets and we stay there for a bit. All the temples are different as many Buddahs Vietnamese Buddhism has.

It’s time for lunch and we head back home. When we arrive, steamed rice and fried seafood is waiting for us as also green vegetables, fish sauce and red tomatoes. Every meal is an experience and a new flavour discovery. I can say today was the dragon fruit discovery, this weird fruit that grows from a weird cactus which is pink and inside is white with small black seeds. It tastes like... dragon fruit and it’s good as hell!

After lunch we go for a massage and this one-hour massage is just so relaxing... the lady literally walked over me and I left there feeling a new person. That’s what I want to learn, that’s what I wanna do from my time here: learn different things that can help me in the future, learn how to have hope with little...

Quick shower and lets visit another temple. This is a 7-floor temple with lots of people. There’s even a store where you can buy Buddahs, prayers, music CDs and everything you can think of.

For the first time I pray to different Buddahs and leave them incense with my prayers. When faith is strong, everything can happen.

People are too beautiful to loose faith in humankind...

Heading back home, we have dinner and tonight’s chicken rice soup, vegetables with shrimps and sweet sweet mango. The kids wanna go out so we grab the motorbikes and we drive through district 1 to a coffee shop with live music. On the way we get lost and after a come back home, we find the place. They ask 25€ per person to go see a Vietnamese guy singing live – we’re 6, including kids – too much. We’ll come another day.

Finally we end up at the same coffee shop we had breakfast this morning and ice cream for the kids, a smoothie to Maxi, mojito to Carlos and cà phê sữa đá for me.

It’s 11.30 pm and it’s time: our beds are calling for us!

Night night everyone, don’t let the bugs bite!