Ho Chi Minh,
Hồ Chí Minh,
Vietnam
Friday, November 6, 2009
Today Steve and myself boarded the bus and had a fairly uneventful trip to Ho Chi Minh City. On the way we had to pass through the vietnam border, apart from being slow, no problems were encountered. We arrived at around 3pm in the centre (Saigon) and set up camp in a place near all the other backpacker joints. Its really nice here, the rooms are brand new (only paying $7.50 each a night), the only draw back is that there are about 6 flights of stairs to reach our room, but its got a nice balcony. In the evening we walked around the streets, the traffic is absolutely insane here, with hundreds of motorbikes on the road, it makes for a crazy time trying to cross the road, hoping you won't get knocked over, you have to be pretty brave otherwise you will never be able to make it across due to the constant streams of traffic. Other first impressions of Vietnam are the number and variety of street sellers, its ridiculous, you get hassled by people selling you practically everything, with the specific sellers offering: Boom-boom (only at night), moto ride, packs of mints, hammocks, sunglasses, shoeshine boys, cigarettes and drugs!! You want it (which I don't) someone on the street can probably get it! I had an early kip tonight as I was pretty knackered from the bus journey, so nothing interesting occurred tonight.
