Ho Chi Minh City

Our next adventure..Vietnam

People in pointy hats, country scarred from their "American war", millions of motorcycles in the streets, people transporting every imaginable (and unimaginable) item on mopeds including their family of four or five, the Mekong river, crazy cuisines including anything and everything from scorpions to frogs, snake whiskeys!!!

Al almost didn't make it into the country this time. The border control guy was asking all sorts of questions and kept him there for 15 minutes. After a shaky few minutes he finally stamped the passport and away we were. Outside the airport was madness....there were no buses, coaches or trains into the city, only loads of taxi's who were offering the journey for four times what we knew it should cost so we got out our haggling skills and eventually got our taxi into town.

Coming out of the airport area and into the traffic was quite an experience. There were thousands of motorcycles everywhere. They passed the taxi on the left and right hand side, some were driving on the pavement, some were carrying entire families, some were transporting goods including TV, cages of chickens etc but the highlight must be one guy carrying a couple of 10m long ladders. Told by the local tour guide, the number of motorcycles in HCM city already increased to over 4 million in 2010 WOW!! Surprisingly though it seemed to be organized chaos as traffic still seemed to flow.

As usual we headed for the backpacker area. When we arrived at about 9pm the place was buzzing with loads of bars, restaurants, and hotel touts. We checked into the hotel and went to the lounge on the 12th floor and got a great view of the city. One thing we noticed about accommodation in Vietnam was that you get a lot more for your money. We found a budget hotel and for the first time in ages had all the usual hotel luxuries including a hot shower and a toilet that actually was more than a bucket and hole!

Not fancying a dog meat surprise, we went on the search for some other Vietnamese specialty and found a tiny street cafe which looked like someones front room with a few tables and chairs set up. The food was awesome though.

We went to the city centre next day and found it quite a challenge to get across the road. Everywhere you looked there were thousands of motorbikes going every direction. Red lights seem to only be a warning and not treated as a mandatory stop. The only way to cross was to take a chance and step very slowly hoping the drivers will swerve to miss us. We got good at it by the end. We decided to take a few day trips from Ho Chi Minh as the city was too intense.