I doubt you can get a "quesidia" in Austin, Boston or anywhere in the U.S.

Quesadillas in Vietnam. You gotta love it.

Well we didn't have "quesidia's" a few weeks ago at a Mexican restaurant on Kauai but the fusion of Mex and Hawaiian was awesome with the fish tacos that I had. So, bottom line is that if a VN/Mex combo works for you, enjoy. Food is more exciting than it's ever been...

I'm not sure there'll be much to write about, indiana. I'm only there for a day. We should all understand that this is the 'Be Kind To Dogster' tour. The mutt's life will be completely uneventful. There are no adventures planned.

He's too scared to go into the Europe room.

Dogster, are you going on a cruise with your Russian friends?

Dogster, surely you jest! You can out-think, out-write, and out-wit 99.9% of the cretins who'd dare show up on the European Forum, and I'd defend you to the death over there. (One of my unofficial titles is "Holy Roman Empress of All Italy" and I've also been called "The Sweetheart of the Vatican", but given that the latter is so heavily male, that distinction was frankly not difficult to earn!)

BC

Azamara, Marija. Istanbul to Singapore, 31 days. Scarcely rivetting tourism...

Why? $4,300 including $1000 onboard credit and free stuff.

You can start the sweepstake now.

leaving hoi an in 10 min. if our yaly tailoring ever gets delivered... they ruined one of k's blouces and the back had to be remade...

Time to review Sound of Music lyrics, dogster.

And here's the route for the current "Predict dogster's fleas" contest:

http://www.bestcruises.com.au/cruise...inerary=152093

One entry per contestant. Restrictions may apply.

yeah, I can just see the dog doing his morning yoga class and pilates.

dogster start your own thread..

Isn't The Quesdia that place in San Francisco???

I don't want to talk about it at all. I'm totally ashamed.

Yea! Another dogster contest!

Ok, as I remember, I guessed right last time. If I do it twice in a row I think I should get a prize - maybe a free cruise on the Mekong, or, more likely, I won't be required to take an ocean cruise.

This one is a bit harder to predict. I don't think he'll abandon ship in Turkey - too early or Greece (unless he likes Greece much more than I did). So Alexandria is the next port.

I'm going to guess Alexandria, as if he stays on the ship he'll have to spend the next eight days at sea with his scintillating companions.

I'm sure he'd rather stay on board until he could disembark in India, but I'm not sure he has the stamina.

" . . . a nightly treat on your pillow"? I wonder what that might be . . .

Is "at sea" after Suez to take place on the Canal? Not a good place to jump ship.

RhkKmk, don't be so touchy. Only I ridiculed your western dining, so you're getting off easy.

When one thinks of a Fodors "three hour tour", Bob is clearly the skipper, Dogster, the professor, I may be Gilligan and I leave Mr. and Mrs. Howell and Ginger and Marianne to others.

How are <b>you</b> doing Mr. GPanda?

Now for dogster. I've never been a cruise so I don't know the cost of, ummm, beverages. How quickly do you think dogster will go through the $1000 onboard credit, assuming he's not wasting it on miniature golf and manicures? That may be important for predicting the duration of his captivity.

i see dogster more of the rock wall climbing type....

for dinner this night, our last night in hoi an, we went to morning glory for dinner and sat on the balcony.... we had a good dinner of rice pancakes filled with shrimp, mushrooms and sprouts---B had shrimp stuffed mushroom caps.... K had white rose (a local dish) and pan seared sea bass with lemon sauce... Across the street to cargo for pastry/ice cream.
basic dinner was $24...

we met a family from concord, ma at morning glory---we had met the wife a day earlier while buying shoes.. we had a nice chat about fodors and travel...

Thursday

spent some time on internet.. went over into town to pick up some purchases and after still more alterations arranged for some to be delivered to hotel before 3 when we were leaving...

lunch at mango mango, a viet mex fusion restaurant... very good.. $6.... chicken burger and a bagette with crisp bacon, melted cheese and spring onion...

cyclo back to hotel and 3 pm checkout... our final purchases finally arrived and our van to the airport about 3:30---350,000 dn.

The vinh hung resort was perfect for us and would have been even nicer, had it not rained EVERY day... i found the bed too hard, but everything else in the room was excellent... our view from one porch was the swimming pool and from the other porch was the river...

Breakfast was sufficient but not fabulous... the bread was fantastic...

the out of the tourist area location was a plus, but a 5-7 minute walk takes you to the center of the action--or a 10,000 dn taxi ride ($.50)...

we arrived at the 1960's danang airport way too early for our 6:20PM flight to saigon... it was pouring btw...

with less than luck, we had a bus gate, but the rain let up... the plane was an airbus 330 with 2X4X2 seating and looked brand new... quick on time flight--1 hour... but no gate upon arrival at saigon for maybe 15 minutes...

The Liberty Central hotel had sent a car for us... price must be on my bill that i have not seen yet..

The hotel is new, 3*, 12 floors and very well located... small snafu with the length of our stay, but that was easily fixed with one e mail to tonkin travel... they telephoned us this morning...

Dinner was in the hotel's dining room as it was raining, 9PM and we were tired.. quite good, nice variety...

our room on the 11th floor (club floor--no privledges) overlooks the local market and saigon's newest and tallest highrise... one floor up is a nice small outdoor pool..

a good bet for the tourist... we are very pleased here... $97.


Friday....

the phone rang at 8AM... it was our guide... i was expecting her at 9, but had never established a starting time... booked through www.comeandgovietnam.com... asked her to wait 60 minutes while we had breakfast and i had a shower--no problem... hey it's rhk---who wouldn't wait 60 to spend a day with him...

good breakfast and a great quick shower with both hand held wand and rain shower...

btw, while writing this i am watching mr bean on tv in vietamese... and laughing...

our driver was a genial man with a nice SUV... the total tour cost was $41 each inclusive except lunch..

first stop was the Cholon market at the binh tay market... unbelievable place selling fresh foods and wholesale everything you can imagine from toys to pots... we spent about an hour +... i took tons of pics...

next we stopped at the thien hau pagoda temple, the oldest in saigon... it was the nicest i have visited, with almost every decoration imported from china...

we lit a special burning coil in gpanda's name. it will burn for at least two weeks..

from there we moved on to the war remnants museum... while interesting to many i found it both old news and something best forgotten... i did find the few armaments from the usa interesting... noon arrived quickly and we were kicked out..

we went almost next door to Pho Xua for lunch--11B le Quy Don St... quite good.. $31 for 3...

Mango our guide was well spoken, informative and fun... she joined us for lunch..

After lunch we moved on to the Reunification Palace... the site of the tank crashing through the gates in 1975 (?), ending south vietnam....

The building is a combo of 1960's starkness and chinese design... I found the inside quite interesting.. and it was larger than anticipated... mostly it is large ceremonial rooms, a few rooms of the former president's residence and military rooms... on the roof was a helecopter simulating the final escape... in the basement was the mercedes from which the monk emerged and lit himself on fire--one of the last such events of the war, and one that was highly publicized at the time...

next we visited the old french designed post office and the exterior of the main catholic cathedral, all of which was transported from france originally (church)...

i was very hot, sweated-out and tired, so we headed to the famous fanny ice cream to cool down and conclude the day... mango suggested that we consider having dinner upstairs at the Temple Club (29-31 ton that thiep st), a former temple and a sort of shanghai bistro... K made a res for 7, while i took some ice cream out to our driver..

Back to the hotel...

After some down time we took a taxi to the club about 6:30... it is on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building, just to the right of fanny... it's very much like a private club, a bit dark and warm feeling...

we had an excellent dinner: fresh shrimp spring rolls, BBQ spring rolls in lot leaves (fabulous), smoked eggplant, fish in tamarind sauce--the best, bbq ribs--pork and beef--not great... for dessert we had banana pudding and hue cake with special sauce (bright green). $47... may be our best vietnam meal... or tied with secret garden in hoi an...

Taxi back to the hotel...

a quiet and easy day and 1/2 coming up before our return to bangkok and 2 busy weeks with 2 thailand/asia newbies...

Curious how you liked Saigon compared to Hanoi? Glad your guide worked out for you. If you recall, our Saigon kids never showed up and we wandered on our own. It was quite easy to get around on our own, so it really didn't matter to us.