Lily's arrival

Lily outside Notre Dame Cathedral

My best friend Lily arrived in Vietnam from the UK early yesterday morning to spend five weeks staying with me and travelling around South-East Asia. Sadly, I'd had some bad news the night before as my dear Grandad, who has been ill for a long time, passed away. With her jetlag and my sadness, it was a funny-feeling day for us both.

We had an easy going day in the local area. Luckily, it was a lovely warm day with a blue sky. I took Lily to the salon, where she had her nails painted bright blue to match her holiday spirit, and I had my hair cut. Later we went to the pool to soak up the nice weather, although when we both found ourselves falling asleep on the sun-loungers I decided we needed to go home and have a walk to keep us awake.

After a better night's sleep, we went into the city this morning to do the main sightseeing spots. We walked up Dong Khoi, the city's high street which is lined with beautiful buildings such as the historic Hotel Continental and the new Vincom Centre, to see the Central Post Office and Notre Dame cathedral. We ate lunch at Au Parc, a lovely cafe with an international menu and views into the treetops of the park outside. Afterwards I showed Lily around the Reunification Palace, once the seat of government for South Vietnam, and now a visitor centre since the North Vietnam Army tanks (models of which are displayed on the grounds), came crashing through its gates on 30th April 1975.

Me in front of the Reunification Palace

Tomorrow evening we fly to Bangkok, to begin two weeks of travelling, in Thailand and Myanmar for me, and Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia for Lily. It feels surreal to me to begin on another trip already, as it doesn't feel any time at all since I was travelling across Vietnam with Chris and then to Cambodia with my family. And, for the first time since my arrival, I will be travelling outside of Indochina. Although this trip is not directly relevant to my project I'm sure I can still learn a lot, and I can work on my book reviews for my project while lying on the beach in Hua Hin.