Chuc Mung Nam Moi! That is happy new year to you and fast becoming my most used Vietnamese phrase, as of last night it is officially 2009 and the yea of the cow.

I'm liking the trains as a mode of transport; every train journey I've taken has been eventful in itself and definately part of the trip, much more fun than flying, which my hostel in Hanoi tried to get me to do - "it only takes an hour and you'll skip half the country" expounded the salesman. I blinked at him - surely if I skip half the country that defeats the whole point? I was a bit afraid of being robbed, which turned out to be ridiculously unfounded as I found myself surrounded by lots of families with small children all in jubilant spirits. When I got on the train, it turned out they'd decided to fit 6 people in each 4 berth compartment in an effort to get as many people on the train as possible. The thought of sharing my tiny berth with someone else for the night didn't sound too appealing, but I resigned myself and started opening the door of my makeshft compartment. The guard (who I'd been warned would be corrupt and I should counter-bribe him as he would surely be being bribed by thieves already) came running up, said "no!", ushered me into my original compartment and kicked a man who was sleeping out of my berth so I could get in. Far from being resentful of this rude awakening, I was befriended by the whole family of nine, who were sharing 2 four-berth compartments (with me) firstly by the grandfather, who was very friendly even though I couldn't understand him, and then by the older grandchildren who could speak English, and a younger one who couldn't, but you can play hide and seek in any language. We had a exchange Vietnamese-English lesson, so my Vietnamese is now marginally better. As my main teacher was a young man I remembered one of my train journeys in China which had started in a similar way and then the guy suddenly decided to take a fancy to me, but before I could get too alarmed his phone rang and with a huge grin he pointed at it excitedly and said "my love!". How sweet. They also fed me with fruit, tea and some suspicious looking powdery stuff which I tried so as not to be rude before asking what it was. Through miming it transpired it was ground-up pig trotter. Yummy. Still, it was better than the chicken feet I'd had in China.

We got in at 5.30am and I figured I may as well walk to my hotel as it would be cooler and quieter. I was a bit worried about being mugged as it was so early but I knew the Vietnamese were ealy risers and after miming being strangled, stabbed and robbed to my new friends they reassured me I'd be fine. I trotted off clutching my map and apart from having to say "no motorbike" 100 times I didn't get too hassled, in fact everytime I stopped at a crossroads and frowned at my map I was instantly surrounded by people who examined my map and pointed me in the right direction. I did make one unwanted friend who kept pointing down the wrong road and talking (in Vietnamese). I thought he was trying to make me go on his motorbike, but he turned out to not have one and kept pointing at taxis. He also pointed to his wallet and said "money" and after a brief fear I was being mugged it turned out he was trying to get in a taxi with me and pay for it. Not sure what he had in mind but I scarpered down the road and luckily he didn't follow me, just looked a bit dejected. Apart from that I made it to my hotel (Yellow House Hotel) without event, and I'm now shacked up in what seems to be the only dormitory in Saigon.

Oh, it is really really hot here. Even at 6am it was muggy and hot, especially with walking a mile with a rucksack. I am however getting a tan yay. Though I thought I looked quite brown until I saw myself in a mirror and realised I still look really pale. It's funny as you can tell whether people are going north or south depending on how tanned they are and how well their clothes are made (those who've been to Hoi An always look sprucier than those that haven't).

Yesterday I went for a wander and found the War Remnants museum. I'm not normally a huge fan of museums but this was really interesting and I ended up staying there for three hours. It was all about the Vietnam war and they had photos taken (mainly by the Americans) of scenes from the war, mainly highlighting the devastating effect on civillian life. It definatey taught me more than I'd learnt from reading about it. Next to the photographs of burnt and tortured bodies they had a display of brightly coloured pictures painted by local kids with slogans like "save the world".

Everyone was in a state of high excitement during the day, as it was New Year's Eve. It's quite funny as they translate it literally into English, so everyone says things like "I'm sorry, the price is higher because it is happy new year". I got kicked out of a cafe "because it is happy new year" at about 1pm and all the shops and restaurants closed down. I headed towards the main centre in the evening and found a concert type thing, lots of mobile food stalls, and lots of motorbikes. Everyone had parked their bikes and were using them as seats which was a pretty good idea. They pedestrianised part of the centre which made me happy as I could walk around without fear of being run over. I found the KPMG offices! It was very much a family affair as there were loads of kids, and also lots of groups of teenagers. Everyone had made an effort to dress up and put on their finery, men were wearing shirts, kids were wearing pink puffball dresses and the teenagers had on trainers and fake designer shirts. There were also a lot of matching outfits going on, lots of groups of girls had the same top, one group had imaginatively placed gingham incorporated into each outfit, and I saw a couple where the girl was wearing a Tshirt with a target at the centre of which was a heart, and the guy was wearing one with arrows on. Tres cheesy.

Other than some dancing dragons, some cheesy music and a visit from Miss World 2008 (who wasn't Vietnamese, I really don't understand why she was there) there wasn't much going on and towards midnight people were just kind of sat around looking bored. I ended up making friends with a local family and two Canadians (and avoiding making friends with a very drunk Vietnamese man). There was no countdown to midnight, suddenly there was a loud bang followed by a firework display, then everybody got on their motorbikes and drove home! I was kind of expecting a party, but obviously not. I haven't ventured out today yet but apparently everything is closed as it's like Christmas, so it should be quieter.