Madame Trang Hostel Ho Chi Minh City

... cover. This was used to hide from American soldiers and leaves were used to cover the hole cover. Pretty normal you would think, what was crazy was the size of the entrance to the hideout, I was just about slim enough to squeeze into the hole!! After being shown several entrances to the Cu-Chi tunnels we finally got to enter them! They were tiny and dimly lit, meaning I had to crouch down really low, pigeon ...

... like "Look, mister! We got into your cab because so far in VN, the Mai Linh taxi company has been very good, so don't you take me around town for a visit, just get me to Point X, i don't have the time nor the money for a city tour with you, get it?!" Then i break out a trusty Lonely Planet map and pretend to know where they're taking us, pointing and blabbing away in French to Pierre, to tell him that i'm hungry, or look at that man, he's picking ...

... the few days we met her, but had been traveling with Jamie for a couple of weeks, again fun. All of them where a good laugh and it was nice talking to other people as we went round the attractions of Saigon.<br><br>We went on that day (dodging the traffic) to the war memorial museum which shows the Vietnam war (or American war as they call it here) from the other side. Out front was parked a bunch of old 60/70s American tank, howitzers, helicopters and ...

... is THE place to get authentic and cheap Vietnamese food. It was big, noisy and bustling. The menu was extensive and we just pointed at what we guessed looked good. My dish was tasty, but Bill got some sort of crunchy salad thing served with a big dish of fish sauce, and he didn't like it too well. <br><br>We then walked to the War Remnants Museum, passing the Reunification Palace along the way. As a refresher, the Reunification Palace was the home of a former Vietnamese ...

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... food and caught up over a few beers before Pike called to let me know that the family had touched down on Vietnamese soil -- whoo hoo! Turns out the Metropole in Saigon is not part of the Sofitel chain, as it is here in Hanoi. So all along, I'd been calling the wrong hotel! With the knowledge that the family had arrived safe and sound, the three of us called it a night and planned to meet up the next day.<br><br>After a leisurely breakfast, Konrad and I ...

... and decorate the room with hats and banners while the others smuggled Jo out for half an hour. We sang happy birthday with candles in cup cakes and slabs of chocolate cake! <br>We then went for lunch and started the beers, then off to a very Vietnamese experience of Karaoke where we now have 4 new converts ... couldn't get them all off the microphone! :-)<br>Then around the corner for dinner and out for the night ...

... Imagine the field trips &#8211; one just waits in anticipation of the next meal to drink. Living is meal time &#8211; everything else is what you do between meals. I LOVE IT!! And the Vietnamese are meat people &#8211; I am in heaven. And when I say meat I mean anything that moves, dog, cat, field mouse, and snake &#8211; you name it. During our field trip we had field mice I have still not graduated to the dogs and cats yet and snakes ...

Back to District 3, this time for banh trang thit cuon.  106 Cao Thang was the address a friendly stop on a tree-lined boulevard.  The street was reminiscent of the cafe-scene from "A Sun Also Rises".  Pernod deprived, I ordered unknowingly, pointing at the stained menu written in language unfamiliar.  Saigon beer, warm in the bottle, poured over ice was the only common communicative bond.  Banh ...

... quitting his job as a personal trainer and k-1 trainer, and he's gone all through China and S.E. Asia, and after a month break back in Beijing, he's going to Myanmar, Nepal, and Tibet. It was also great learning a bit about what a cool, young Chinese guy does for fun, etc. He likes travelling, punk-rock, and drinks beer. It's hilarious that an asian in the US who does/likes those exact things is white washed yet ...