Bed and Breakfast Ho Van Hue Ho Chi Minh City

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... and gets that changed.

He says he just wants to play this one last hand. The cards are dealt, $120,000 in chips and $80,000 USD cash sitting in the dealers briefcase lay before us. The chinese guy gets a ten and nine (I know cause of the hand signals) and I get a 9 and 4. The next card flashed to me is a seven, so I grab it and have technically won, cause the Chinese guy is playing banker and by the rules has to sit on 17 and above. Yay me.

The chinese ...

I arrived into Ho Chi Minh to be picked up by Jimmy (well that was his 'English' name) thankfully we went in a proper taxi and not on a bike, I have never seen so many and there doesn't seem to be any rules just drive and try not to hit anyone, even if that means on the pavements - what was I leting myself in for :)

The Guest House which is the base before being shipped off the the building project was nice and clean, no-one else was there when I ...

... ride either way, but even so, we packed in a lot. In fact, it was full-on activities; riding about in a big river boat, then switching to a much smaller boat to explore the narrow channels of the Mekong. I was in the first boat, and we disturbed a snake. I saw it zipping through the water, quite amazing (and it helped to sharpen my focus when clamboring in and out of these wobbly little boats :), then cycling on one of the islands, lunch with entertainment, trying ...

... head massage I went over to Mr hairdresser who had girls either side of him so when he put out his right hand he got scissors and his left he got a razor! It was a good job for $8 but he did blow dry it up very high so I had to flatten it down after I walked outside. I visited the market and got heckled and ended up buying 2 shirts for $8. I am now waiting to catch my train up to Da Nang on the central coast from where I take the short hop to Hoi An, the ancient fishing port.

... how people lived by and on the water of the delta.

A really peaceful and picturesque part of the day was when we where rowed in a small boat along a narrow part of the river with mangroves growing either side. Sometimes the river narrowed enough for the tree tops to meet forming a tunnel for us to pass through.

We really enjoyed this trip.

2nd day
Time was spent on the internet booking onward travels, emails and updating this.

We also went to the ...

... that day (big mistake). Tom & I spent the day leisurely - eating Western food for lunch (veggie burger for me), walking around, shopping and catching up on e-mail. We booked a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels for Monday and I could only hope that my eyes would improve by then (at least the tunnels are dark right?). During the early evening we headed to the night market and purchased some souvenirs to send back home. Afterward we headed back to the beer stand from the night before and ...

... the day biking around. We ate wrap-your-own spring roll thingies and drank lots of iced Vietnamese coffee. Hoian is more touristy but lovely still and has a great beach where we spent the day eating 'prawns' the size of your fist, grilled squid and iced Vietnamese coffee. In the evenings we trawled around the little street bars where Bia Hoi (draught beer) is 10p. Yesterday we got all cultured here in Saigon and looked around the war museum and Reunification palace getting ...

... the MAI LINH office we met a lady called Su from San Fransisco, who is Chinese but living in Vietnam. She helped us a bit. Basically you have a number on your ticket and you match it up to the number on the bus... thing is you have to go round looking at the buses to find the correct one :)
The 40 seater mini bus with aircon and bathroom didnt materialise - we had a 16 seater ''local bus'' As we were getting on the bus a guy showed us where to  put our bags and put us in our seats ...

... the restaurant scene is a big attraction with wonderful tourist restaurants offering $4 masterpieces that are out of reach for locals, but that remain good deals for travelers looking for delicious & safe food.
In addition to a few historical sites, and a great density of older Chinese temples & guild houses, Hoi An is known for its incredible density of tailor and custom clothing ...