Day 21, Summer in Asia, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Decided to do the big trio of shopping on our last day in Saigon; the Ben Thanh Market, Saigon Center, and Vincom Center. Doesn’t matter where we end up, we know we will find Japanese food and French pastries. May sound a little odd, but I can’t imagine a better combination.
In the market we picked up a couple of light travel bags and sunglasses. From there we walked a block to the Saigon Center to have a pile of Japanese dumplings and scope the local styles. Paul tried a pair of pants, but the proportions were nowhere close to his. This seemed to be the case with other clothes we tried on, so we decided to stick to food.
Next we mall hopped over to the Vincom Center, which was a bit smaller than the Saigon Center. We are still taking advantage of the Vietnamese passion for French pastries, there are competing bakeries everywhere you turn.
These “custard doughnuts” were in every bakery that we went to. We named the custard doughnut “spaghetti pastry” because it fell apart into little strings when you ate it. The family gave the custard doughnut a 5/5 baguette rating.
This location called “Paris Baguette Cafe” had little french people printed on their coffee cups. The sleeve was their little vest with a rainforest friendly badge on the chest. The lid formed a little hat to complete the outfit–we were sold. 
The ceiling was dripping a little, so we occasionally used the hats for ourselves, and occasionally to protect our French coffee. We were served two French women, and one French man. We were wondering if you always get your own gender to drink from. Then we wondered, did they just assume our gender, and is that ok anymore?
We spent our last evening at the BBQ Garden, where they have propane grills built into the tables and a grill-person who will make sure you don’t ruin your meal. It’s the perfect grillin’ storm. All that dining under what looks like a weeping willow tree of twinkly lights. There are certain family meals that are particularly magical and you know will be referred back to over and over by the girls; this was one of those.
