Hey!

After our first night in Saigon we stuck to our routine of having a lengthy explore around on the first day.

Saigon is a mental city.Crazy.I've never been anywhere where there such blatant abuse of motor horns.Deafening,random and completly non-sensical.

It was a fairly cool day & we headed towards the place where I find the most interesting & the place where Laura really gets to work...the Markets!

.....cental Market was the place and before we even stepped in (baring in mind we were clearly going IN to the market) we were met with offers/demands for taxis,motos & cyclos.Giving a polite 'no thank you' and smile 2/3 times seemed to do the trick but it didn't prepare us for the grabbing,the 'hey lady,buy something!!' and 'hey Mr,you want shirt,cheap price,cheap price!' as soon as we stepped into the market.

We were in a new city and quite used to the hawking already so we took in all in our stride and found it fairly entertaining,especially when being pitched hammocks,large paintings and dining sets.

4,000 handbags and a hooky Chanel watch later (I sound like I'm complaining.I'm not.it is really great to watch Laura bargaining...if you're rooting for her anyway).I've also devised a tag-team tactic where I play the stone-faced boyfriend who really likes the item Laura wants to buy but appears to believe we can get it at a cheaper price elsewhere and slowly steps away from the stall.Ruthless.

Exiting the market and wandering around aimlessly,hoping to stumble upon any sights that interested us Laura found a hairdressers to treat & colour.much needed.I've come to realise how blonde Laura actually is!

As entertaining the hairdressers was with it's 50 students clucking about the place and customers smoking whilst getting their short back n sides done.nice.I thought my time was best spent getting my bearings around Saigon.

I didn't really go far but seemed to cover a lot of distance,managing to visit
The parks,The Vietnam/American war museum-loved that. American planes,tanks,bombs and my new post lottery winning wish list item...military helicopters.big ones.
Also snook in a brief visit to Notra-dame-a-la-Vietnam and the post office...sounds dull but the post office is a really cool,big,French & new York influenced building,busy with tourists and locals alike taking photos,sending packages & making phonecalls home.

Back to Laura....ehhh.

I find a grimacing,Ginger haired & pink rooted Laura surrounded staff,all wearing vacant expressions.

I won't go through what happened following the 6+ hours at the hairshop of horrors but there were tears,probably best forgotten (for now!!) and required a stiff drink afterwards.

Bye!