The Air Asia flight out was delayed 4 whole hours, finally departing at about 9.00 pm. An interesting chat with a couple of Malaysian businessmen at the waiting area killed the anxiety, somewhat.
We landed at 10.00pm local time. Although further east than peninsular Malaysia, Saigon is one hour behind. Subuh was between 4.43 am and 5.49 am, and Maghrib at 6.09 pm.
We were taken by the travel agent to the Four Seasons Restaurant on Thi Sách street, Saigon for dinner. It's run by a Champa Muslim and serves halal food. There was quite a spread, but we were already too tired (already 12 midnight Malaysian) to have it all. They had waited for us too although it was past their closing time.
We stayed at the Ramana Hotel, which was near to the airport. We were dismayed to discover that it no longer runs a halal kitchen after a recent change of management. So no meat for us there.First day was shopping day, starting with Champa lady, Hajjah Basirah, stopping by at the hotel with stocks of telekongs, embroidered handicrafts, tudungs etc to sell. One of our party had ordered some hundreds of handcrafted purses beforehand for her daughter's wedding. I bought some stuff too - USD80.00 worth, mainly telekongs and tudungs for the family.
Note: In a city of 10 million, there is a community of about 50,000 Champa (from Cambodia) Muslims.
A stop at a shop for busana muslim for bahwal tudungs, cotton telekongs and linen blouses,
before proceeding to Ben Thanh Market where we went crazy over fake Kiplings. Also got some T-shirts.
Total damage at Mai's and Ben Thanh was USD76.00
Lunch was at Lion City Restaurant, a halal joint with a Singaporean chef, Nicholas, who whipped up a mean kway teow soup and fried rice, as well. The ustaz (in the business card) was the one who gave us the solat schedule above.After a relaxation therapy at a local spa, we headed back to the hotel in time for our jama' solats.
Next day we were off to the Cu Chi tunnels and the Mekong Delta.
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