Street food is tasty and budget-friendly, but I wanted a break, so I decided to treat myself to a restaurant meal.

The drink is called soda sua hot ga. It’s supposedly Vietnamese, but I’ve been looking for it and haven’t seen it anywhere here, so I decided to ask about it. They hadn’t heard of it, but learned how to make it for me! They did a good job of it too; I ordered a second one.

Not pictured here is dessert, a coconut ice cream dish.

Compared to the street food I’ve been eating, this was a splurge. The bill came out to a whopping $16.53.

I walked to Ben Thanh market to find breakfast and someone who could fix the torn seam in my pants. On the way, I received a couple compliments on my hat. Breakfast came in the form of a mango smoothie and a bowl of pho bo. After eating, I found a clothing shop, and asked if they could sew up my pants. They quoted me a price of $5, which I bargained down to about $2. While one of them sewed up my pants, the others commented on my hat, and asked to try it on. Naturally, I obliged:

On the way back from the market, I bought these two mangoes for about $2:

Traffic: lots of motorbikes. Surprisingly easy to navigate; just walk across the street at a constant pace and let traffic flow around you.

Street food: tasty and cheap. Prices I’ve seen are around $1.30 for a smoothie, $1.70 for banh mi, $2.70 for a bowl of pho (though I suspect it can be found for cheaper), and fresh fruit as cheap as $0.65 (specifically, what I paid for a container of three passionfruits).

Spas: very aggressively marketed. I’ve been grabbed and had to drag someone with me until they gave up, and (gently, perhaps playfully) hit when I refused an offer for a massage.

Durian: not fantastic, but nowhere near as bad as the legends. I’d like to try it when it’s in season.

Illicit offers: I’ve been offered marijuana twice, and “young lady” once (well, actually twice, since I walked by the same sketchy man twice as I wandered around).