For out final day in Ho Chi Minh City we commenced our ascent to the Bitexco Financial Tower Skydeck located 262 meters above Ho Chi Minh City. The Skydeck is on the 49th floor and offers spectacular views of Ho Chi Minh City and the asp like Saigon River. At the time it was built (2010) it was the tallest building in Vietnam, however it has now been surpassed by the Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower at 345 meters.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city by foot. This meant that I had to rest my weary feet with some Fish Reflexology. For tjis, you place your feet into a warm spa filled with Turkish fish, the Garra Rufa species native to the hotsprings, lakes and rivers of the middle east. These fish were the size of sardines and were nibbling at my feet for 40 minutes. Now, I've had this done before but never have the fish been so big, or so feisty!

We also had few new experiences today of a culinary nature;
We had our first Cà phê sữa đá (Vietnamese Iced Coffee) which is made with finely ground Vietnamese-grown dark roast coffee that is individually brewed with a small metal French drip filter and poured into a cup containing about a quarter to a half as much sweetened condensed milk, stirred and poured over ice. Yum!
We tried our first Bánh xèo, crispy Vietnamese savoury pancakes that are served wrapped in mustard and lettuce leaves with herbs. Mmmmm!
We tasted our first authentic Bún bò Huế(Vietnamese beef noodle soup) served with Nem, a fermented meat wrapped in a banana leaf, and a Vietnamese Frozen yogurt to finish...just heavenly!
Thanks to our new friends Hannah and Khoa for showing us some delights we would never have tried without their local knowledge.

So here we are at the airport lounge, a little sad to be leaving a city which has captured our hearts.

Final thoughts on Ho Chi Minh City:
-the people are some of the most gracious and generous I have ever met in a city
-the food is fantastic, and Vietnam should be on every foodies bucket list
- the humidity does not work well for redheads of Irish decent. Despite the promise of straight hair from GHD when leaving the hotel, the humidity changes you back to a long haired 40 year old version of Annie singing "my hair will be straight, tomorrow"

Off to Paris now....