What About Vietnam

What About Vietnam - Series 2 - 20

The inside "scoop" on the best nightlife in Saigon 2020/21

Kerry Newsome: [00:00:35] Xin Chao, and welcome to what about Vietnam, I'm calling today's episode an insider's view into the best nightlife in Saigon. And the reason I'm doing this is that I'm actually talking to an insider, a lovely girl who at the moment is living in Saigon, Vietnam, and managed to find herself there just prior to covid lockdowns. So we're kind of getting the best and the most up to date information about this city. And the focus of the program is definitely going to be on just all the great things to do after dark. I mean, let's face it, a lot's changed and I've wanted to make this show. All about Saigon and certainly about after dark and the best way I thought to do this was to let Selene showcase her knowledge.

So you're not going to hear too much of me and me interjecting in any way. I just really wanted to, I guess, put a proper focus on all of the aspects of going out she was able to share in a way that you could relate to it, and I guess consume it in some ways. The pandemic did have an effect on Vietnam, but certainly not as drastic as in most Western countries. You'll hear from Selene how the Vietnamese and the local expat fraternity decided to make the most of it. You're going to hear about how locals love to get out and about at night in the cool air. What and where are the places to go that make this city get talked about so much as a fabulous nightspot? Is it safe? She put some really good insights for you as a traveler to think about that.

Kerry Newsome: [00:02:41] I'm happy to report the answer is yes. So what kind of experiences can a new traveler expect to see in Saigon when they do eventually get to come back to Vietnam? I think Selene's insights into that will be interesting for you as well. She talks about cocktails and venues and experiences that will suit all types of travelers. So whether you're a family, whether you're a solo traveler, in particular, a female or whether you're a backpacker, there's just something for everyone. So as we sit here still in trip planning mode, you're going to be considering the cities that you first enter into the country. They are most likely going to be Hanoi, Saigon or possibly Danang. You may want to consider definitely including a couple of nights, especially after this episode, having a couple of nights in Saigon as part of your trip, because there is a lot to do in this city. But from my personal experience, my best experiences of Saigon have been when I've had the value of people's experience. And, I've done some research because it is a big city. It's got lots of districts and they each offer something unique. So to get about, when you sort of come into the country and like your head's doing a 360, I'm hoping this episode, along with some of the others in my series, maybe you might want to check out the shopping one and maybe the food ones that are coming on. I think if you have those in your backpack of things to do, it's going to make you enjoy the city so much more. Just a little bit about Selene. She's an Australian girl.

[00:04:40] She's been traveling back and forth to Vietnam since 2005. She decided, as I said, to make Saigon her home. Just prior to Covid hitting. But,she's never looked back. You will hear how she absolutely loves Vietnam, Saigon and certainly the Vietnamese people. She comes from a very dynamic and diverse career across film and media to product manufacturing and brand development. She's made documentary films, worked as a digital producer and currently manages a small printing and sewing factory in Vietnam. She's the owner of two brands,CushionArt and XXXX Beautiful Homeware products you might like to check out on the links in the show. She's had a career in film and media that spans almost 20 years. She's an excellent speaker, which is another reason why I decided to make this episode really all about her and what she can share for you as the listener. She's an award-winning producer of short stories and documentaries such as The Demon Fault featured on SBS TV, plus Going, Going, Gone. And Every Story Has a Happy Ending, which has received over 300,000 views on YouTube. More recently, Selene has returned to her passion of writing stories for the screen and is developing a TV series. She's proficient in English, French, Vietnamese, and would you believe some Spanish. I know you won't be able to write notes fast enough to capture all the gems that Selene shares on the show. So please relax. I've included lots of the links here. I'll feature some on the episode notes and you'll also be able to find them on my website:- What about Vietnam.com I really want you to enjoy this program, nothing more from me, you're going to just have the voice of Selene as she shares her thoughts, her experiences and her passion for Vietnam. So without further ado, let's say hello to Selene in Saigon.

Selene Alcock: [00:07:00] Vietnam is a sort of very bizarre case in the world, there aren't very many countries in the world that managed to avoid the Covid crisis, but Vietnam did that really successfully.

Selene Alcock: [00:07:15] Obviously, there has been a flow-on effect of NO tourists, no international flights and the tourists being able to come into the country. One of the most noticeable changes of that is that the Ben Thanh Market, which was the big central tourist market, has now completely closed, which is quite sad to say, because a lot of people have lost their livelihoods from that. And that was also like a night market right next to that market, which is also closed. So definitely no international flights and no tourists has really affected the heart of Saigon and also the morale of the people, because there are a lot of hotels, restaurants, businesses that reliant on tourism and some other places have been lost. However, there has been a rise in the local and also expat international scene. So whilst the tourist nightlife scene has died somewhat, the local ex-pat international and also the local Vietnamese nightlife scene is okay. Actually the reason I have to say that right at the moment, there isn't much nightlife happening because we had another scare here. So we've gone back to people can go to events, but generally, it's limited to 30 people. So there's not a lot of raging nightlife right at the moment, but it was, most of 2020. They love to get out and that they're very proud of their food. And as you know, they have an extremely strong and vibrant street and street food culture. So a lot of Vietnamese nightlife actually centers around that.

Selene Alcock: [00:09:05] So basically people will go out, they'll eat something on the street, they'll drink something on the street, or they'll go to kind of like a specialty eatery place. It could even be a coffee shop or a bubble tea place, which is pretty popular here. Generally, Vietnamese youth love to be out and about, hanging out of coffee shops and beauty shops so they're not drinking alcohol. They'll find another kind of venue. But a lot of these places, like a lot of Asia, are open till 10:00, 11:00 at night. So there's a vibrant nightlife that's not necessarily alcohol-related.

Selene Alcock: [00:09:39] That's the first thing. And then all of a sudden, you get hungry at 11:00 or 12:00 or one 1:00 a.m. there's usually a place that you can go and eat to the side of the road.

Selene Alcock: [00:09:49] So that's also part of the nightlife, I say, because people are generally out and about on the streets doing things, chatting, eating, drinking, etc. So the locals saying there are nightclubs as well for the Vietnamese people. We can go into that in a minute. But the locals say generally over nightlife in Saigon, Vietnam has always just been let's hang out on the streets and let's find something to eat and drink.

Selene Alcock: [00:10:17] People love to get out and about at nighttime because it's cooler. So that's one of the reasons that many people in a hot tropical climate, especially when you would love to get out and about at night, and also the masters of napping, so they can have a nap the next day.

Selene Alcock: [00:10:32] So it's all good to be out at night. It's not a big deal. Getting to bed, kids as well, at this hour. And it's like, oh, well, the Saturday whenever you have a nap later. So very relaxed. And I think that's what makes it fun to be out at night because nobody's stressing out about we've got to get home to get to bed at night.

Selene Alcock: [00:10:55] Well, we'll sleep when we need sleep. It's a different mentality. I find that with a lot of Asian cultures and there's some obviously southern European that it's like, well, we're tied loosely. If that means we have to sleep in the middle of the day, that's fine.

Selene Alcock: [00:11:11] Yeah, what's the deal so, Kerry, you know the ex-pat culture. Well, The ex-pat culture is also really as I mentioned, I first came to Vietnam and to Saigon in 2005. So there were very specific ex-pat cultures back then that tended to be, you could say, not so desirable, the older men sometimes. And then also backpackers and travelers, people may be working as English teachers.Now there is a variety of reasons why people are here now Saigon, 20 or so years prior to that and ongoing is a completely different place. For starters, it's an entrepreneur's hub, I think. Richard Branson said Saigon was one of the top five cities in the world. Now, something like that, as a sort of an entrepreneurial hub. So that is definitely changing the face of Saigon. In addition to that, we had covid-19. So you had a lot of people who say in the creative fields, music scenes, even English teachers who dropped into Saigon at the end of 2019 or early 2020, probably expecting only just a couple of weeks or a couple of months. And they now call Saigon their home. So we've had a really big shift.

Selene Alcock: [00:12:31] Now the other thing is that when a bunch of foreigners get stuck in a place together, we won't say stop, but end up living. They start saying, oh well, I live here now. What can I do here?

Selene Alcock: [00:12:43] I can't travel outside of the country. I'm an international DJ. Well, I can't go to the full moon party or IBiza or do any of those things anymore.

Selene Alcock: [00:12:53] So I might as well make the most of the scene here. And that's exactly what happened. So there's the usual for example, if you're a tourist, you come to Vietnam. There's an assortment of nightlife experiences you can have. We can talk about that in a moment. But if you're a local living here, a Vietnamese local or an ex-pat local, there's a more diverse range of things you can do.

Selene Alcock: [00:13:18] What's happened is that a lot of stuff has evolved over the past few years, but particularly I found in 2020. So we have a lot of kind of "alternative bars", underground bars, alternative scenes.

Selene Alcock: [00:13:32] You have a rise in things like a "drag queen" scene also happening here from Gender Funk; they are very kind of proactive in that area. I've been to a few drag shows myself and they're fantastic.

Selene Alcock: [00:13:47] The other thing I might just add in here, I mean, I'm going to do lots of the different scenes. Here is what I find interesting about Vietnam and Saigon. And I think this definitely feeds into the nightlife.

Selene Alcock: [00:13:57] Is that because Vietnam went through a lot of conflict in its history, a lot of wars, a lot of foreign invaders, colonization, very overpowering, other countries trying to always overpower them from China, French, even Japanese, having sometimes grueling war with the US, et cetera, et cetera. You would think that they were very averse to foreigners. However, I find Vietnamese people to be.

Selene Alcock: [00:14:29] Extremely open to foreign input, but at the same time extremely proud of their culture and who they are and also what they've achieved in terms of their independence and becoming a strong nation.

Selene Alcock: [00:14:42] So I have very deep respect and love for the Vietnamese people. And I love them because it takes two to tango. You can't just be a foreigner. Rock up here and say, I want to do this, that and the other. You have to have the Vietnamese people saying, we want to do that with you.

Selene Alcock: [00:14:57] And generally, you know, everybody has their obstacles. Generally, the Vietnamese being very open to this experience. And what you've got is this kind of really lovely fusion thing taking place. So when you've got this openness going, you get a lot of like speakeasy bars in alleyways and stuff.

Selene Alcock: [00:15:15] Often there's a French owner behind it or whatever, but just the mix of flavors. And then people also kind of saying, all right, well, even in the making of the cocktail there is a fantastic cocktail scene here and fantastically well-made cocktails now and. Ok, let's go into cocktails, so.

Selene Alcock: [00:15:37] The thing I like about Saigon is that you've got this labyrinth, labyrinth and kinds of streets and alleyways and stuff. So you've got all these fantastic little bars that would have been either in somebody used to be house or shopfronts or whatever that's been converted to a bar. So you've got a lot of really fantastic alley bars and even mentioned this intersection. You've got like, whole areas which are like alley bars or bars, that are in alleyways and stuff. So you've got this really fantastic on-the-street culture where you can go into a cool cocktail bar. Often there'll be a big, fat, heavy door and you can hear the sounds of music thumping on the inside because, I mean, you want to block out the sound from motorbikes and whatever else is going on in the street. And suddenly you open the door and you go in. There you go. Oh, my God.

Selene Alcock: [00:16:27] I've really come into a whole new world that I didn't expect. Well, you've gone sort of down an alleyway and then you found an entrance and then you come down a corridor, and then you've gone up a flight of stairs, and around the corner and everything. And suddenly you end up in this bar and you're like, oh, my God, how does this place exist here?

Selene Alcock: [00:16:47] So you think about coming to Vietnam as an expat or even as a tourist to be able to discover these kinds of places. You hear about a place and you discover it often. You get lost trying to find it. So you're like, is this the right number to walk down this dirty alleyway with cats, and dogs and rats and things coming at me? And then I've got to go down here, and up here and around here and then somewhere you end up in this glamorous cocktail bar, groovy music, and stuff, and you're like, oh, wow, this was exciting.

[00:17:18] It is because it's also a discovery process of finding the essence of Saigon as a treasure trove of interesting bars and cafes and people and scenes and all sorts of things. So the city lends itself to that.

[00:17:43] You've got your kind of tourist strip, you've got your rooftop bars, cocktail bars, you've got five star hotel bars, which are often rooftop bars as well.

[00:17:54] We've got like classic Vietnamese nightclubs, which tend to be a bit fast and furious. And then you've got like this whole scene, which is a mix of local Vietnamese and expats, and obviously not really so many tourists these days or no tourists these days. But probably in the past, some troops would turn up, but many expats would go there. And those kinds of scenes, they're just a bit more they're not necessarily all alternative. They're just a bit more underground or not so well known. So there's some really interesting I'll give some examples. So there's a Frenchman here. And I think when we were chatting, I told you I've been on this thing called the Secret Weekend. I've been twice, and I absolutely loved it, which we can talk about in a moment. So the people that organized the secret weekend called Saigon Dub Station. They also run a place called Indika Saigon. And it is a little bit more alternative. As you can turn up in your hippie clothes. You can turn up as a funkster. It just depends on the day and the night. But it's a bit like a little house. And then they've got like it's kind of little house of curios anyway. And then they've got like an outdoor area with a lot of the plants going into the concrete. The trees are going into the concrete. So it's just like a cool. And they've got a vegan restaurant attached to that as well. So it's just like a cool place. And this is got a bit of a hippy alternative vibe to it, I suppose. You know, then there's a really cool place in District two or Tandim, which is where a lot of the foreigners live. A Lot of these places increasingly run by French people or started by French people.

[00:19:54] WAM stands for "we are monkeys" and their decor reflects that. It's a very small place. It's very popular. I've been there a lot of times. They get great DJ's, great music as a very small place. Down stairs is like a little counter bar kind of scenario. And everyone hangs out on the street outside drinking so you can get some craft beer on tap. There's this kind of cool lemonade like alcoholic lemonade on tap, which I've had a few times, great cocktails. And then upstairs it's all, it's got this amazing decor and it's all sort of like wallpaper of monkeys and jungles and bananas.

Selene Alcock: [00:20:34] And they've got written up there. We are monkeys in a kind of light sign. And it's just a cool, little funky place and just small. And they often have nights there.

Selene Alcock: [00:20:48] They're like there's a group called Saigon Pundit's run by an American guy. And so they do talk nights like they did one called " this ex-pat life" and one on "polyamory".

[00:21:04] So really interesting topics. So people sort of gather there and talk and drink. So, yeah, I just find Saigon's a real melting pot of people, people from different age groups, different nationalities. As I mentioned, a lot of people who maybe only plan to be here for a short time but ended up living here. Thats only two places I've mentioned. Oh, there's the observatory, which is a really cool late night spot.

[00:21:29] It's a bit of an institution that's been going for a while. It's a good place to end up. Vietnam, as in Saigon has become a bit of an entrepreneur's hub. It also has a lot of teachers,and generally, a lot of the people living and working here tend to be in their twenties and thirties. You get like older professional type people who are working in manufacturing because, obviously Saigon is also a big manufacturing hub, particularly in textiles and garment and shoe manufacture.

Selene Alcock: [00:21:57] So you get a lot of like families as well. You get a lot of older people in their 40s, 50s who have careers in those areas. They're not necessarily the ones out clubbing. Not to say they don't go out. I'm in my forties, I go out and party. And yet probably the majority of the people I'm partying, partying with are in their twenties and thirties. I don't care, because I'm out there to have a good time. So, yeah, definitely. But I mean, it's just like anywhere you go. If you suddenly were in Sydney and you said I'm going out raving and partying all weekend, you're more likely to find yourself hanging out with a bunch of twenty and thirty-year-olds just because younger people tend to have more energy to party!

Selene Alcock: [00:22:38] So they think,....., I think there are no limits. I'm going to keep partying till I'm a 90-year-old granny, at which point I'll become a DJ myself.

Selene Alcock: [00:22:54] So the rooftop scene has really expanded as well, so as you mentioned earlier, Kerry, you've been to the Caravelle Hotel, so they have a quite well-known rooftop bar called "Saigon Saigon", and they've had LIVE acts, and they make great cocktails. There is a little outdoor section. You can see the city skyline.

Selene Alcock: [00:23:15] Obviously, Saigon has an ever-growing, ever-expanding city skyline because of the nature of it expanding as a city and construction booms.

Selene Alcock: [00:23:28] So you also have the Rex Hotel, which is very close to the Carevelle and has a very interesting history. And it's always had a rooftop bar as well. So that's another nice, more relaxed, chilled out place.

Selene Alcock: [00:23:42] Often they'll have live acts at some of those five-star hotels.

Selene Alcock: [00:23:45] They'll have a rooftop bar and they'll have like a live band and sometimes the ubiquitous Filipino band. But then what's happened in the kind of local Vietnamese scene? More than an expat scene, obviously, if you are an expat or a foreigner, you can go there.

Selene Alcock: [00:24:02] We have Chill Sky Bar, which is a bit of an institution. It's probably one of the better rooftop bars in terms of how the bar actually looks. And the view from the bar. Chill Sky Bar is in the AB Tower and it's down towards the sort of traditional tourist area like Bui Vien street, right near the New World Hotel, actually.

Selene Alcock: [00:24:28] The view from there is fantastic because you can actually see one of the biggest roundabouts in Saigon, so when you're looking over it, at night, not you can see all the bikes and cars going around, all the lights, you know, especially going around the circle. That's a cool view, plus there's park. From there you can see a bit of greenery and the DJ's Box is a sort of circular box, and it's right in the middle of the bar. So you can be getting your drinks, partying and dancing. And the DJ is sort of there in amongst you. But I think actually it's slightly elevated.

Selene Alcock: [00:25:04] So you can sort of walk up the stairs and see down onto the stage and then down onto the street. So there's some really great views from all different angles. A chill sky bar is is is a great place to go, especially as a tourist, because it's got a bit more of a local view.

Selene Alcock: [00:25:22] Lots of beautiful Vietnamese girls there as well. A new one that just opened up. Another really great one is Glow Saigon that opened, I think a few years back, I had a birthday there. So actually that's also sort of similar to Chill bar, plus a new one that's opened up is the Epic Sky Lounge. Now, I did pop up there briefly last year and there was some extreme hip hop night going on with extremely loud music. And we went back down the elevator. There are other we were talking about the alternative scene, there are other quieter rooftop bars where there is a bit more of an international DJ vibe. Some of the Vietnamese clubs can be quite commercial and loud to the point of distortion. So there's a mix of people that go to these bars. So there's Broma; Not a Bar which is slightly rooftop. I mean, it's like three stories high.

Selene Alcock: [00:26:31] You asked a good question earlier about wining and dining, there's a lot of very up market places. There's one that's been around for a long time. I haven't been there for ages. It's called Shri. It's Shri Restaurant and Lounge or something. It's in the center of town. So you have to go into these office blocks as well and they're at the top of an office block. So Shri is great because it's very useful. It's got loads of water features and stones that you step over and it's very upmarket food. So it's upmarket market wining and dining, but you get a nice view of the city. It's a world away.

Selene Alcock: [00:27:08] It's a more quiet, ambient version of a rooftop bar.

Selene Alcock: [00:27:13] We also have if you're a tourist in the downtown area, which is in Bui Vien Street there's a place called The View Rooftop, which is in straight. It's at one extreme end of that kind of tourist strip. And so if anyone listening out there, its like the Khao San Road tourist strip in Bangkok, it's kind of the equivalent of that now.

Selene Alcock: [00:27:44] So you want a karaoke night out in Saigon, no problem, karaoke everywhere and Vietnamese people love to sing. So I went down there once and I had two friends and they basically went, Yeah, yeah, come on, sing. And then my friend got up and started singing an Elvis Presley song or something to this group of about 40 Vietnamese people in that street.

Selene Alcock: [00:28:06] It was pretty hilarious. I think a videod it too, you know, you can have just random experiences like that. You can just join a bunch of people and start singing with them, that's the other area I'm talking about is actually the tourist strip with all the backpacker hotels.

Selene Alcock: [00:28:24] So it's more like a boom boom kind of, you know, clubs, bars, but with lots of girlies, dancers in Vietnamese girls in short skirts serving you Heiniken or Tiger beers. So they're kind of more like that. and it didn't used to always be that way, because as I said, I went there in 2005. But that's also been turned into a pedestrian strip. Now, that is quite the circus experience. If you want to go down there, you can sit on the side of the road and eat some local food, and drink some beers and watch people walk by, bicycle by, because I think they allow bicycles and stuff and all sorts of stuff goes on. There is a soap opera taking place on every corner.

Selene Alcock: [00:29:12] Thats, the great thing about Vietnamese sort of street life and nightlife is that you can actually just sit on the side of the road and observe. And it's more interesting to watch people. Certainly more interesting than watching television, there's a lot going on. You can say "those people over there having a domestic" and see if it "is a love affair going on over there". Someone's moving their cyclo and bikes and all of this. Some with guinea pigs on a bike and 28 water bottles trying to get down an alleyway. There are all sorts of stuff going on because obviously, people try to load up a lot of stuff. As I say, this is kind of a motorbike-free zone, I think now at night. But people still go down on bicycles.

Selene Alcock: [00:30:02] Yes, totally. I mean, if you want to go on the experience I just described, if you want to go and have a beer on the side of the road and some sort of local snack food kind of thing, it's cheap.

Selene Alcock: [00:30:15] So the word for a sort of beer on tap places could be a bia hoi So there are a lot of these kind of street places where they have, you know, they'll have an actual shopfront, it's not just purely on the street food. Just to clarify the street food that is purely on the street. They've got all of the bits and bobs that they need to set that up. And cook it on the street. And then there is sort of more like sitting on the street. But there's an actual place or restaurant doing the cooking. Yeah, yeah. And they'll have a toilet and all that sort of stuff. So those kinds of places they normally call a Quan to you, and so it's more like a local place that usually has a certain kind of food. So whether it's bia hoi food, it will typically have food that goes with that, sticks of barbecued things. Usually, you don't get fried rice, it's usually non rice-based. It's barbecued salty things or sort of snack food to go with Beer because essentially you are there to drink beer. Then you have a street food place which will just be eating food and might not have a beer. So if you go to one of these places, you could eat food and drink quite cheaply if you go to a local bar. Again, you can buy inexpensive drinks, but if you suddenly want to go to an upmarket cocktail bar, which there are now many, certainly the prices go up.

Selene Alcock: [00:31:44] But as you just mentioned, the comparison to Australia or Sydney, things to keep in mind is that if you want to drink and of course you're not going to drive, your taxi fare is super cheap. If you've got kids and you've got to pay for a babysitter, your babysitter is super cheap. So and then you basically, if you wanted to go for a similar culinary or drinking experience as to somewhere like Australia or Sydney, where I'm from, you can have the same or better quality, in my experience, for definitely a fraction of the price. So you can probably pay a quarter or a third and get the same quality. As I said, the cocktail scene has really gone off. I know somebody who started a bitters company here and he actually makes the best out of a lot of the local products or resources from Vietnam. So, I mean, things like Cinnamon Saigon is famous for cinnamon, lemongrass, ginger, obviously. So there are a number of spices. And obviously, it's become a chocolate country. It's the second-largest exporter of coffee in the world so all of these things are going into his bitters. I love the beaches. It's called Saigon Bittesr Company. And so a lot of the cocktail bars are using these and they just add that extra little touch. So but also, you know, the Vietnamese are really they embrace so much.

[00:33:21] So, you know, some of these bars and new ventures, a run or initiate have been initiated by foreigners. But Vietnamese are getting up and making fantastic coffee shops, bars, and they have a strong coffee culture. Nothing to do with foreigners. I mean, obviously, first introduced by the French, but they are fantastic at running their own coffee shops, bars and everything. And they're fantastic cooks have got an amazing cuisine. So they just know how to mix things up, and that applies to drinks and cocktails. So they're just getting really good in the whole cocktail-making department.

[00:34:03] A new thing that started last week with Secret Weekend, they've done three secret weekends, it's run by a guy called Morgan. He's French from Saigon Dub Station. And the last one I went to weekend three was just outstanding. I had a fantastic time. So basically what it is, I think the next one is going to be in a different location. But the last two, we're at a mud bath, hot spring resort, about two or three hours north of Saigon. So I'm not sure if it was five stars, but It was very beautiful Resort. You Could stay in a villa or stay in a room depending on your income. So basically, to go on this secret, you pay a certain amount.

[00:34:50] And then they had a party in the forest area of the resort and they had a giant carved bear which has a tree coming out its head that had a lot of fantastic lights and a lot of international DJ acts.

[00:35:07] So there was a bit of a spontaneous drag show performance and also some live music. Some guys were mixing beats and performing, singing at the same time and playing some instruments, the Vibe Mechanics. They are my new favorite thing, I just saw, they're playing again soon. So it's just what I was saying about the alternative scene. There's just like a lot of people really great creative people about, particularly in the music scene and mixing and creating these exciting kinds of things.

[00:35:35] So a lot of people compared it to Burning Man, which I've not been to, so I can't really say. But it was like a weekend outdoor - 48 hours of music. They also have music by the pool, so it is like nonstop DJ's back to back and all international DJ's as well as Vietnamese, just fantastic music and really chilled out people having a good time. They had some TP's set up outside. The lights. I mean, the photos I saw from this weekend, just amazing. And then you can go and hang out in the hot pools. And we were actually sitting in a villa and we had a hot pool. You know, like a 40 degree hot pool. Yes, after a hard day of dancing in the forest, you can get into the hot pool.

Selene Alcock: [00:36:30] Thank you for asking me and definitely, I'll provide your listeners with a cool rooftop, cocktail lounges, alternative craft beer, list. We can do a whole kind of wrap-up, with names of the places, and then hopefully when Tourism returns and tourists can come and check out a lot of these places. Thank you for listening.

Kerry Newsome: [00:36:55] Check out the episode notes for more information. What about Vietnam?

Kerry Newsome: [00:36:59] Don't forget to subscribe, write and review and stay tuned for more fun adventures in Vietnam.