Travel Diary

I was still adapting to the changes, so very little occurred for me on December 31, at least during the day. I rested a great while and sorted out some videos and photos too.

At night, it was the big celebration. We all headed down to the hotel and then to the rooftop. It wasn’t crowded around 9pm. We had a reserved table and sat down there. We had chosen a bottle of rum for the group drink. Well, they had chosen. My only drink would be Diet Coke, or Coke Light, as they have slightly different names for the drinks. As long as there are no calories or alcohol, I’m okay with it.

Food was promised, and delivered, but it was what you’d expect. Just some light snacks that were likely frozen 30 minutes prior. That was fine. Not every meal in Vietnam had to be memorable. It was all edible so it counted as food. Fair enough. We took photos and more and more people arrived.

One fun group was an English trio. They were quite chatty as the daughter lived and worked in Saigon and her mother and sister had come to visit for the holiday. The had been drinking before arriving and never really stopped. Just really wild and fun people to hang out with. Another young couple was from Texas. They were traveling all around this part of Asia and she and him would create TikTok videos to help offset expenses. It sounded like an exciting, albeit, perhaps exhausting experience.

People cheered and drank champagne when the year ended and it was wonderful to be thousands of miles from home, but still hanging out with dear friends. Another very successful New Year’s Eve, just sober this time.

We hung out another hour or so conversing with people, and then helped a tipsy attendee back home. Still being a little hungry, I went with Terry to a nearby pho place that was open very late (like 2am). I guess there was still business to be had. The place was mostly empty but we got two bowls of pho, and I must say, it was the best I’d ever had. Perhaps a little spicy as I added the peppers in. At one point, I splashed some of the broth in my eye and it stung for the next half hour. Ah, memories. Then it was back to the flat. I probably crashed around 3:30am.