The Road to 40 Day 266/365: Exploring Familiar Places

It’s our first full day in Vietnam, and while I don’t really have anything much planned, I had some things I wanted us to do.

My body clock had me getting up at 7:30am here, so I took it upon myself to buy breakfast for us. I went to Starbucks for our regular orders and then some.

Back when we stayed here in Saigon, our place had a Starbucks, which became our go-to place when we didn’t want to cook breakfast.

Che had an early meeting, so she left with her cup of coffee while Vino and I stayed behind. We took our time to get ready, as I also wrote the blog.

Vino was hungry around 11am, so I decided we should have lunch first before anything else.

He wanted Ippudo, and I obliged. It was close by, and we could walk to it. We each had a ramen, and I ordered gyoza and a bottle of water. All of that cost us 24SGD. In Singapore, one bowl of ramen would cost that much already.

We were supposed to get our nails done, but we weren’t able to find a place that offered the service. I think there was, but I didn’t want to stop on shady places especially since I was with Vino.

We went back to the hotel first and rested a bit in the room. I had an appointment at our old barber at 1:30pm.

House of Barbaard was our regular haircut place, and it had a bar. Our frequency there led me to try practically all the cocktails they had available. I got a slot from my regular barber so I could catch up with him.

I appreciated that he recognized me, and he was genuinely happy to see me again.

After I got my haircut, we were supposed to be off to Thao Dien to check out the play place tomorrow with the boys.

Che sent me a message asking if we wanted to pass by her office. I didn’t have an appointment or anything, so I said we’d drop by.

It was good to see familiar faces and meet some new ones. I’ve heard some of their names, but at least I got faces to the names now.

From the office, I booked a ride to Vincom Megamall where we’ll see the kids tomorrow.

I checked out how to reserve slots for them tomorrow. Vino wanted to have a session, but we couldn’t be in the same one since he would be in kids’ cars. Instead, we headed to Vino’s old school.

We arrived just in time for club dismissal. Of course, his friends are no longer in the Early Years campus, but it’s the building he came to know. I guess he was just feeling nostalgic looking at the place.

I invited him to walk around the area. It’s a place I’ve walked multiple times while I waited for him back then. I wanted to see what changes happened, and there were plenty.

There were a lot of coffee shops that opened and even some bars. I told Vino I would have enjoyed the place a lot more if we were still here.

We walked to find a nail spa, but couldn’t find one nearby. We took a short Grab ride to the nail salon I’m sure would have a slot.

Even after we got our nails done, we still had about an hour to burn. I told him we should have a snack first so that he wouldn’t be hungry when we’re watching the play with his friend.

After our snack, we went to the secondary campus where we met his friend. His friend’s mom bought us a ticket to a stage play. I thought we’d see some old friends of Vino, but we didn’t really see anyone else.

It was a decent play, but I’d argue we acted so much better when we were their age.

After the show, we parted ways, and while Vino and I agreed we’d have Korean BBQ for dinner, he said he just wanted to go home.

Meanwhile, Che was still with work friends, so it was just Vino and me in the room. He got hungry so we tried to order something from Grab, but it got cancelled. Thankfully, room service was still available, so we got pizza.

It took a while, but since he was able to eat already, I asked him to brush his teeth and get ready to sleep.

Tomorrow will be a big day for him, meeting more old friends. For Che, there will be an event in the evening that she came for, so it’s going to be important for her as well.