I got to the hotel and found out that they hadn’t got my online
\nreservation. I later discovered an email telling me that there were not
\nany vacancies. Anyway the email was a big stinking lie as I checked in.
\nI just forgot the name of the hotel but then remembered I’d “borrowed” one
\nof their pens so the name was the “Windsor Plaza Hotel”. I would have
\n“borrowed” more of their goodies (hey it’s the law in hotels) but
\nunfortunately I’m very conscious of the lack of space I have and the fact
\nI have to carry everything so ended up taking a pen and some cotton buds!
\nThe point of booking it from England was so that I knew I had somewhere to
\ngo which was okay, and to this end it sufficed. My room was huge and I
\nhad lovely views over Saigon. Well, when I say lovely views, at the
\nheight I was you could distinctly see a layer of smog. In fact the next
\nmorning this all kind of clung to the window due to temperature
\ndifferences and it became hard to see out. I guess that’s why a lot of
\nlocals wear face masks all the time.<\/p>\n
When I got to my room (about 2pm) I decided to have a short nap before
\nheading out to get some food. I don’t think I realised how tired and jet
\nlagged I actually was. I woke up at eight o clock, decided I couldn’t be
\nbothered to go and get any food and went back to sleep. I then woke up at
\nabout 3AM and decided to take the time to make plans for my time in Saigon
\nand my journey North to Hanoi. I dozed slightly, watched entertaining
\ntelevision and decided I would wait for sunrise. Sunrise was a bit of a
\ndisappointment as you don’t really see the sun rise as such in Saigon you
\njust see the sky turn a different shade of grey. I then went up to the
\nroof top pool and took some photos of the city (I will put these and other
\npictures on the website when I find a connection which is quicker than me
\nrunning in ridiculous heels). The pool was quite nice and next to a gym
\nwith two very fat Vietnamese men running on running machines. I couldn’t
\nhelp thinking that they would have been better exercising outside rather
\nthan in a strange air-conditioned gym but then again I guess they may have
\nexpired.<\/p>\n
When the time came for breakfast I put my flip-flops on and left my room.
\nAs I walked towards the lift four Vietnamese people from the room down the
\ncorridor stared at my feet in horror. I remembered reading about feet in
\nmy guide book and the fact that they are seen as dirty by the Vietnamese
\npeople. As I was going to be in a place where people were eating I went
\nback to my room and changed into trainers. I then went down to the
\nrestaurant for breakfast and realised that the vast majority of people
\nwere wearing flip-flops or sandals. I thought this slightly odd for a
\nmoment and then realised that the reason they were looking at my feet in
\nhorror was not because they were morally impaired to have seen them but
\nbecause my tangerine fake tan was coming off in an abnormal fashion and
\nthat they probably thought I had some weird from of leprosy!<\/p>\n
Breakfast itself was very nice with a huge amount of choice. I opted for
\nsome delicious local fruit, fruit juice and a yoghurt. Okay, I’ve just
\nrealised that I’ve told you what I had for breakfast which may be
\nconstrued as slightly dull. The reason I mentioned it was more to try to
\nconvey the fact that the local fruits here are amazing. There are a lot
\nof funky new fruits to try and the more known fruit, like pineapple,
\nbananas etc tastes infinitely nicer, probably as it hasn’t been frozen for
\na couple of years before being consumed in England.<\/p>\n
After breakfast I went and got my bag and checked out. I then attempted
\nto leave the hotel which took me about 30 minutes. The reception was not
\non the gournd floor and every time that I asked someone where the exit was
\nI ended up on a different floor in a different place due to communication
\ndififculties. I eventually managed to escape the perilous hotel and got a
\ntaxi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I got to the hotel and found out that they hadn’t got my online reservation. I later discovered an email telling me that there were not any vacancies. Anyway the email was a big stinking lie as I checked in. I just forgot the name of the hotel but then remembered I’d “borrowed” one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}