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Last night we returned to Silverland Yen hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. This morning would be our last in Vietnam before we returned to the ship at mid-day. Our goal was to pick up our new tailored clothes. But first, we had time for a quick hotel breakfast and a stroll through nearby Ben Thanh Market.
This market, internationally famous, has 6,000 small businesses in 1,500 booths. Vendors sell everything from food to luxury goods, both wholesale and retail. The market receives more than 10,000 visitors a day.
At 9:00 am, we made our way to Fine Silk tailor. Last year, we felt completely lost in the maze of streets and traffic. This year, we felt completely at home, with no problem navigating and crossing the ridiculously crowded streets.
Between all of our referrals, we figure that Nga the tailor had more than 60 custom outfits she had to turn around in 24 hours, with another 24 hours for alterations. Nevertheless, all of our clothes were ready on time. Rather than risk the shuttle bus getting caught in traffic, our excursion group took a hired car to return to the ship.
Ho Chi Minh City is one of our favorite ports on the entire world cruise itinerary, and we were sad to sail away for our last scheduled time here. (Next year we will only sail the second half of the world cruise, boarding in Singapore.) We finished our evening with a festive replay of the Academy Awards in the Star Theater.
