Day 4 in Sai Gon

Day 4, Wednesday (14th): Breakfast again (!!) with scrambled egg, salad, bread and coffee. Because of my painful blister, I decided not to walk very far. I wanted to find 36 Lê Lợi, where Kaiko lived during his visit in 1973. From the hotel, I started walking down Lý Tự Trọng and before reaching Lê Lợi, one of the largest boulevards in this city, I found the CIA safehouse, crossed the street and went to a small garden adjacent to the building directly facing the safehouse. Now I could see the rooftop of it clearly.

But “36,” was not easy to find, as should be, because the whole street seemed to be a “36” at an alley corner and, walking into it, an apartment building. Very old and almost dilapidated. I saw a hair salon at the ground floor and walked up the spiral stairs to its fourth or fifth floor, as high as I could go. Was Kaiko, a regular of Hotel Majestic, really staying here for his last visit to Sài Gòn? Kaiko also writes about a noodle shop “聯光酒店” at Pasteur which he seemed to visit frequently. I couldn’t find it.

And walking down the street, I heard someone speaking to me from behind. “Do you speak English?” I turned around and answered, “I do.” The man, a Westerner, said, “I lost my bag two days ago…” I remembered reading an article about “Western beggars” and said, “Go to the police.” “Thank you and have a nice day.”

I went back to the Gingko shop and bought three T-shirts. Walking toward the hotel, I thought about having lunch at the Market but I didn’t, finding a family of rats, busy and voracious there.

Back at the hotel, I read some pages. I took a shower. Out for dinner of seafood spaghetti and lime juice at Café Lamenda, very near the hotel.