Meeting up with the tour group

I met up with the tour group tonight.  They seem like a nice bunch of people. Two Australian couples, a British/Polish couple and a British/Thai couple and their two teenage kids.  Not a bad mix.

Our tour leader is Phi, a guy, who lives in Saigon and does this as a full time job.  

After our introductory meeting we went to dinner at a restaurant in town.  We sat upstairs in this wooden building, where the floor was sort of sunk in the centre so you sat on the floor with your legs going down into the centre.  There was table in the middle. On Phi's recommendation several of us tried the local specialty dish, the name of which I've already forgotten.  It was rice noodles, with salad/herbs, pork mince rissoles and a thin sauce.  Thankfully the waitress showed us what we were supposed to do with it - put a bit of everything in the small bowl and pour some sauce over it, then eat from the small bowl, no biggie, but it's nice to know how one is supposed to eat the dish.  It was very good!  Not too rich or greasy, and with no unusual animal parts (well noticeable ones, anyway).  I'll certainly be looking out for that again.

We were supposed to walk back from the restaurant, but it started pouring down, so we wussed out and took a taxi back.  Again, an entertaining ride.  It rained heavily like this last night too, but has so far been dry during the day.

I also went to the day spa this afternoon.  Turns out it's not part of the hotel, but in the hospital down the road.  I had a pedicure because it included a foot massage, which I thought would help my feet sore from walking.  It ended up taking 2 hours!  Very pleasant, if slightly unnerving when they dipped my feet in what appeared to be hot wax.  I now have pastel pink toenails.  Not exactly practical when travelling, but I couldn't tell them I didn't want my nails painted.  I also couldn't explain that I needed to leave for my meeting with the tour group, after the treatment stretched over it's allotted 90 mins.  So I was late to the meeting, but I did get to watch 3/4 of the Zorro movie playing on the TV.

Right.  We're up early tomorrow, so I must go get some sleep.