Ho Chi Minh City is formally known as Saigon. The city centre is situated on the banks of the Saigon River… as our bus makes its way through the chaotic traffic ridden streets, Jade and I are noticing how clean and colourful the city is. We are instantly taking a liking to this city. Even just seeing it through the window of our bus! We head straight to our guest house which is hidden down a dark and dingy alley way; it is cheap and very cheerful and this is all down to Jades persistent bargaining skills. Our room is very cool and large; Jade thinks it is almost like doing a homestay as the family are living down stairs in this very spacious abode, we walk past their beds, wardrobes and kitchen just to get to our room! They are all so friendly though and the wife/ mother laughs at our attempts to greet her in Vietnamese. Quickly refreshed and ready to hit the streets. We are staying in the Pham Ngu Lao area which is renowned as the back-packer area. The streets are alive with stalls and motor-bike taxis, Vietnamese men whispering in your ear "any ganja sir" as we walk on past with our illuminated faces. Jade cannot contain her excitement as she finds a convenient store, we have almost gone 7 days without any snacks or sweet treats, as they are non-existent in Phnom Penh or far too expensive. Oh how we miss 7/11's! We buy a few treats and carrying exploring. Markets seem to be a feature in every Asian country/town we visit, so this is where we head to, Ben Thanh market. Ben Thanh market is a bustling area, again selling all the obligatory Asian gifts; there are endless walk ways. It was like a maze! Finding the food wasn't a problem as our well trained noses sniffed out the route! The city/country is famed for its Pho, which is noodle soup and this has become quite the staple food of my diet on this trip, Jade now taking a liking to it too … just as long as there is no coriander on top! We are getting hassled by every hawker for each of the individual tiny kitchen restaurants in this area of the market, which is really busy as well as being quite claustrophobic in some points. We sit down, well we might as well have been forced down by the lady hawker of this one restaurant. There is somewhat of a language barrier here too. We are asking for pho... noodle soup she nods her head, and within minutes we are given this cold bowl of noodle topped with bbq pork and veg… no soup. Jade and I complain and we get given a bowl of stock to pour over… It is amazing, so fresh tasting, sour, sweet and the taste of the mint, basil and crunchy topping of peanuts. Wow. It is a taste sensation; Jade reckons this could possibly be her favourite food of the trip. After the market we talk a walk around the city, we pass many well-kept gardens in amongst the towering buildings. Alongside the sky scraper you can see many Chinese and French colonial buildings, it is beautiful. In Vietnam we have come across many bakeries selling all kinds of delicious cakes and crusty bread and baguettes, which is such a luxury for us, the bread in Thailand was always so sweet. Ho Chi Minh has such a good atmosphere, probably as it is their ONE and ONLY holiday of the year TET, Chinese New Year, which last from 3-5 days, there are many dragons and decorations that fill each road side throughout the City centre. We spend the next morning sorting our tickets for our next stop: Da Lat, which we are excited for. We are staying in a busy area and night life is aplenty. Beer costing cheaper than water, would you