We woke up the next morning refreshed and ready to start our adventure... one other thing that we have learned is that the best way to start the trip off right is to get a great first night's sleep... what this means is that we finish dinner around 6PM or so, get back to the hotel, take 2 benedryl, and go to sleep. Even though we are already exhausted, we take the benedryl to ensure that we will stay sleeping and not wake up at 3AM wide awake. So, for instance, on this trip, we woke up about 12 hours later - around 6AM, basically now on Saigon time for the rest of the trip.
There are pluses and minuses to having breakfast included in your hotel rate. The good thing, obviously, is that you don't have to pay for another meal, or the translation is that you don't have to pay hotel prices for being able to eat first thing in the morning without going outside. There's nothing worse that being starving and having to wander around for who knows how long trying to find something good in a strange city.
So, that being said, here's our hotel breakfast:
This is a very lackluster (but fancifully presented) bowl of Bun Bo Hue. Note the pitiful lack of herbs (sorry to keep making you wait to see the real thing). The broth was also quite weak and had little flavor.
This is Bo Kho - a beef stew that uses bread (banh mi) to dip into the sauce. The meat was beef shin, more commonly known in the west as osso bucco. This was the best vietnamese option on the hotel menu, so we had it practically every day. The best part about it was the banh mi - the texture of the bread in this city is amazing... the outside is so crisp, it shatters, while the inside is light, airy and tender. The only thing that I have ever had in the US that is even close to it is Po Boy bread in New Orleans. Also, note the very small amount of herbs present - here you see thai basil and saw tooth herb.
