Today we visited the Jade Pagoda, which is one of the most famous pagodas in HCMC. It was about a half hour cab ride through some of the busiest traffic we've seen in Vietnam. The thing that makes it busy is the number of cars. The city seems to bond well with bikes but as soon as you put a car on the road it chokes the road and bikes have to fight for their lives for the available space. The highlight of the day was an afternoon visit to the Cu Chi tunnels. Un...

There are about 8 million people in Ho Chi Minh City and about 4 million scooters. That is one scooter for every two people. We've seen a lot of them with more than two people. Until earlier today the most we have seen is four but a little while ago we saw a scooter carrying five! Speaking of scooters, today we joined the fun by taking a Vespa tour. We all agreed that this was the best thing we've done so far during the trip. We were picked up at 8 am from our h...

Today we learned how to cross the road in Vietnam. The secret to crossing is to walk confidently across the road and amazingly all the traffic will avoid you! We walked to Marge and Dave's hotel a few blocks away, perfecting our road crossing technique along the way. After a few wrong turns and some friendly advice from the locals we found our way to Ben Thanh Markets. Ho chi Minh day 2 It's amazing how you can fit so much market into a small space. Every squ...

It doesn't take long to realise that you are in a very different country. Our first contact with Vietnam was the very stern customs officer that checked our passports. I thought I saw a hint of a smile after he had processed the four of us but I coudn't be sure. It was dark when we arrived at 6.30, reminding us that it is technically winter here although still hot and humid. We had a taste of Ho Chi Minh with the cab ride to the hotel from the airport. Now I kn...