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Saigon (AKA Ho Chi Minh City)
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Well, we have now arrived in Vietnam's largest city, Ho Chi Minh City, or as it used to be known before the 1975 reunification of South and North Vietnam, Saigon. Our first impressions were that it was an extremly busy and hectic place, fulling of crazy motorcycles and other traffic, which means that crossing the road here means taking your life in your own hands.
We settled on a decent guesthouse in the traveller area of the city, paying 15USD (not bad for a big city) and set of to explore the city. One of best finds was a Pho (noodle soup) shop called PHO2000, which was visited by Bill Clinton when he came to Saigon ( we know this is because his picture is plastered all over the wall). The food was some of the best we have eaten on our trip so far - beautiful tender beef with noodles or in a soup with a great flavour. We have already been back for a second helping!
On our first night in the city we set off to find a restaurant that had been recommended in our guidebook, and thought we had found the right place (we subsequently realised we had n't found the right place!) anyway, we had Vietnamese style barbecue with beef rolls with cheese, prawns and some tasty aubergine. I probably seem to be writing a lot about food - well, both Daniella and I have been really impressed with the food in Vietnam, it really is fantastic, far superior to anything Cambodia or Laos had to offer. Soon into our stay here we met our Dutch friend Gemma, who we had travelled with previously in Laos. It was quite a coincidence - Daniella had been walking to the shop and then heard her name being called from above - it was Gemma from her balcony - a big surprise ! - So we all met together with Grace an Australian girl who we had met in Can Tho, and went to the ACTUAL restaurant from the guidebook, which was also great ( I wont bore you with more foodie stuff!). We headed to a few bars afterwards, and then Saigon premier nightspot, Apocalypse Now, (we have found unfortunately that drinking is quite pricey in the big cities - about $4US per drink), we chatted with an Indian guy and his very drunk Vietnamese friend -it was a good laugh .
Next day with a bit of a hungover, Daniella and I went to the Qantas office to try and sort out our flights for NZ, after a bit of intial difficulty, we have sorted it out, just have to confirm in Hong Kong. Result!!!! The rest of the day was spent running around and sliding down various water slides at the Dam Sen Water Park. As it was a weekday, there were very few people at the park, so no queues for any the rides which was great. Some of the rides through you around a lot more than the water parks that I have visited in Europe, so we came away from an extremly fun day with a few bumps and bruises!
Both of us really enjoyed Saigon, it is a great city with lots going on -we even had time to visit some musuems - there is a really interesting one detailing the sufferings of the Vietnamese people during the Vietnam war - The Agent Orange dioxins dropped by the Americans on Vietnam have some terrible long lasting effects on Vietnamese - mutution, deformaties, cancers etc. All very harrowing. Though, it is good to see that Vietnam is know thriving as a country, enjoying a period of strong economic growth and stability. We have now bought bus tickets for our next stop, which the hill station of Dalat so will se you there! More thumbnails ...
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