We left Nha Trang’s manicured boulevards and parks for the southern city of Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City as it’s been officially called since 1976.

Not having had a good night’s sleep on the night train to Nha Trang, we chose to take a daytime train to Saigon. The seats certainly weren’t anything like those represented in the pictures at the train station but we settled in for the 8 hour journey in the rickety seats we had reserved.

On the train, ladies came up and down the aisles offering foods such as baby duck eggs (boiled eggs of fully developed ready-to-hatch ducklings), roasted birds (heads still on), popcorn, chips, and rice dishes. I ordered a decidedly non-exotic ice coffee. As it turns out, it wasn’t the benign drink I thought it would be. I will have picked up a stomach bug from it. This certainly dragged me down for the next few days, leaving me with low energy and no appetite. This was the worst I’ve felt throughout the entire trip.

We were really looking forward to our time in Ho Chi Minh City since my sister Juanita, her husband Harold, and friends Bev and Terry were going to meet us there!