Day 85 Wednesday 2nd December 2009

Stacey says

Arriving at 6am to HCMC , there wasn't any hotels open yet, so we followed suit with the locals and sat on a street café for a cup of tea! Groups of taxi drivers sat together and had their mornings gossip. It was good to sit and observe the city coming alive, with more and more motorbikes filling the street as it got towards 7am. It was enjoyable watching the locals being hassled by the morning lottery ticket and newspaper sellers for a change! We then went to look for a room to stay, a lady approached us from a clothes shop, offering us a room in her hotel above the shop! All sorted and went to have a few hours to nap. We decided to follow the walking tour in our guide book again for a couple of hours, going through some markets, where I amazed some locals by using my clicker on my fresh itchy mozzie bite. They were wondering what the hell us strange foreigners were doing, Steve teasing one of the women, shouting 'bang' when he clicked himself with it, which made her scream and jump 6 foot in the air, and a security guard came out to inspect all the hassle! ..continuing on with the most productive part of the walk being the HCMC Museum. We then took refuge from the rush hour in a café for some wedges and a beer. On first impressions we haven't found it to be as manic as Hanoi, as there are wider pavements, so we don't have to walk in the roads, but that was until rush hour started where drivers avoided traffic jams by driving up on the pavements!!

Day 86 Thursday 3rd December 2009

Johno says

Ho Chi Minh can just be described as pure mayhem, 5 million bikes for a population of 7 million is just a recipe for disaster if you are Johno and Stacey crossing the road. Not only are we looking out for the 5 million bikes plus cars weaving in and out the traffic, we are looking left then right rather right then left…! We did go through part of the City which was as if a central London street had moved to Ho Chi Minh City for the day with designer shops and big fancy hotels around. Needless to say, most of the rest of the day was spent resting up after a few hours walking around the city!! Ho Chi Minh or Saigon is pretty much like Hanoi in nearly every way!!

Day 87 Friday 4th December 2009

Johno says

Today we woke up bright and early for a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, a tunnel network from Ho Chi Minh to the Cambodian border, several stories deep that include trap doors, living areas, storage facilities, weapons factories, hospitals, command centres and kitchens used by the communists to fight the Yanks during the American War!! The Americans literally couldn't work out why they were being killed in their tents at night by the peasant army… their frustrations were known by the copious bombing campaigns in the area by the B52's!! I went for a go in one of the surprise attack bunkers which lead to the tunnels… it was scary… these Vietnamese guys were even smaller than me!! We then we taken around the trap inventions used and I am sure a few of the Americans were in quite some pain from these things!! The guide was really good, he in fact had been shot in the War with the South Vietnamese army which made quite an interesting story leading up to the Cu Chi site. Stacey then went through a tunnel network designed for Westerners as the original tunnels were intentionally only small enough for the Vietnamese army - I was too chicken feeling claustrophobic so I decided to just walk the 100metres overland! The morning was so exhausting we decided to chill out for the rest of the day in preparation for moving on tomorrow. Obviously via a quick cheeky beer as this will be our last cheap ones for some time!!

Day 88 Saturday 5th December 2009
Stacey says
We had an early flight this morning heading back to Singapore! It was a swift 2 hours on Tiger airways… we arrived safely! Familiar with Singapore, we took the MRT (tube) to the city this time, costing a fraction of the price of the taxi, and just as quick! And made our way back to the accommodation we stayed in previously, greeted by the same guy we were friendly with the last time. A very smooth transfer! We then spent the day by ourselves wandering around. I headed into Clarke Quay and around Raffles plaza, via a few shopping malls. I realized today that the Singapore marathon was on tomorrow! All the roads were being set up in place for it. It was nice to be back in Singapore, its got a real good buzz about it. It felt so much more peaceful than hectic Vietnam. I popped into a popular restaurant café with the locals for some dinner, and then remembered how fast they work, giving me only 30 seconds to decide whether I wanted pigs eyeball, pigs liver, pigs intestine, or chicken feet. I ended up with pork rib soup. I had a night in watching Singapore Idol and reading my book, whilst Steve went out for some beers and a catch up with Joe! I believe he returned to Yellow Jello bar, typical English going back to the same old same old.
Day 89 Sunday 6th December 2009
Stacey says
With no window in our room, it was constantly pitch black without any lights on. So we embarrassingly slept in til 1pm! Albeit Steve did merrily stumble in at 3am and insisted on telling me the nights events. So we completely missed the marathon!! However it did actually start at 5.30am…. So I'd figured I wouldn't catch it anyway… I headed to the Botanical Gardens today, I took a picnic and my book. It was a very pretty garden, it was far too big to venture around the whole of it. So I went walking for s bit past Swan Lake, and Ginger Gardens, Chinese Garden.. There was also a whole heap of Christmas trees which are dressed by local companies and are put on display, these were all very different and interesting to look at how people had decorated them, some having quite a bit of time spent on them, some looking pitifully dismal, with a bit of tinsel slung on it with mismatched baubels and a star leaning off the top. (Obviously decorated by a half hearted guy!!) I found a nice spot and sat and read my book and tucked into my picnic. Headed back to town a littler later and decided to have a dinner by the Riverside in Boat Quay. It was a little pricy, but my belly was stuffed nicely !! Then returned back to the hotel and met Steve, he'd walked around the city today, buying himself some 'going out' shirts…
Day 90 Monday 7th December 2009
Stacey says
Wow .. 3 months into the trip today! We feel like we have done a lot, but it is flying past! We got up early today had to get a few things done. We met up with Joe for lunch for a Chinese feast.. Being the last of the Asian food!!!! Sob sob… After went for a walk around Chinatown and made our way back to hotel, before heading back off to the Airport. We scouted around for all the food and drink freebies, had a foot massage in the lounge area, and then boarded our flight looking forward to watching some movies!