It turns out that even though Vung Tao is a seaside resort, it is mainly used by the Vietnamese escaping the rush of Ho Chi Minh and as Tet is approaching apparently the resorts become quite as people prepare for the holiday when they generally visit family and don't have time to chill on the beach.

It was good in a way as it meant traffic was light and we didn't have to queue for anything, however as mentioned previously most of the restaurants appear empty. Anyway we were rudely awaken at 6am due to a female shouting on the street again, Vietnamese is so loud, the people are loud and the traffic is loud, once awake you will find it hard to get off to sleep again.

After breakfast we headed off to see a mini version of Christ The Redeemer Statue, using a new sat nav app I downloaded, whereby it downloads Google maps and then uses the phones GPS signal to say where you are. Brilliant! Only it doesn't seem to recognise private roads and so we walked for 1 hour up a hill in 35 degree heat only to realise it was the wrong way. So we had to walk back down the hill and then around it for another hour and a half until we reached the start point to see the statue. The only way I got Isla motivated was to remind her that we have Machu Pichu at the end of our trip and that will be much harder, so we are in training.

The statute is on top of a hill after 900 steps. We started the climb and luckily the route had several rest points in the shade which was very much appreciated. Eventually after about 30 mins we reached the top, the views back out over the South China Sea were amazing and the statue itself was impressive. We never knew how much of a Christian following the Vietnamese have. We enjoyed the view and peacefullness for about 30 mins before making the much easier walk down.

Once down from the statue we headed back to the hotel and decided to hire a moped. What a relief, the process in Vietnam is so refreshing compared to Thailand, no contract, no looking round the bike finding absolutely every scratch, just simply hand over the keys and off you go. The bike struggled to start and I questioned whether it had fuel in the tank, the lady opened the cap and showed it had fuel so we just presumed that the fuel gauge was broken. Off we went cruising the coastline looking for things to do and a place to eat. After about 20 mins of riding I heard a loud pop from the exhaust and then all power went......... Out of fuel.

Couldn't believe it. I have never ran out of fuel in 12 years of driving. Lesson learnt, never presume. So we started pushing the bike ( well I did ) a few strangers tried to tell us where to go and eventually we stumbled across a lovely old Vietnamese lady who had about 1 litre of fuel in a milk bottle. She sold it to us for 25'000 dong which is like 80p. Whilst waiting for the fuel to bleed through a strange man came over and took an interest in me which was on the verge of creepy. Made us feel slightly concerned, so I jumped on and tried to start the bike...... No luck.

A young lad then came over and motioned to let him try, which we did and immediately we thought he was going to ride off with it. He managed to get it started and handed the bike back with a smile, Isla and I got on and headed for the nearest petrol station which the lady had described as being 4 sets of traffic lights away by pointing at the headlight on the bike and then holding up 4 fingers.

Good to her word ( rather sign language ) we found the petrol station. We filled up half a tank and then went across the road to a restaurant that was selling a local specialty that I had read about called Banh Khot which is small deep fried pancakes with prawns and herbs on top. You are supposed to wrap each pancake in a lettuce leaf and dip it in a fish stock sauce. I liked them but I think Isla found them too greasy. We then went and watched a lovely sunset with an ice cream before getting an early night ready for the trip to Ho Chi Minh.

We caught our mini bus to Ho Chi Minh ( or Saigon as the locals still call it ) as soon as we got out of the mini bus we were overwhelmed by the traffic. Saigon is like the beginning of a NASCAR race. Each junction or set of traffic lights has hundreds of mopeds/motorbikes waiting to roar off as if it's a race. They don't follow any traffic system and basically fight for every piece of road and even pavement if the traffic is bad enough. We managed to cross a few roads with a feeling of achievement each time and found our hotel. Once checked in we headed back out to enjoy the sights and sounds. The city is crazy, always going 100mph and very built up and modernised, which we were not expecting.

We went to an old post office building which is very French built in the 1700's I think. It is still operational so we posted our post cards. We then went to the Vietnam war museum to learn something's about the history of Vietnam. The museum was shocking with displays of torture and all the weapons used. It also had areas designated to victims of "Agent Orange" and Napalm. I knew about Napalm but had never heard of Agent Orange. It turns out that it is a chemical substance that the Americans sprayed over city's and rural areas which causes malformations of body parts and to this present day people are still born with the effects. Its results were so bad that America is still paying $1 Billion dollars per year to compensate Vietnam for this act of chemical warfare.

After this sobering experience we headed for the tallest building in the city called the Vietcom bank as I had read it has a bar on the 53rd floor. We found it and got an elevator to the bar. The view was stunning and it had just turned to dusk so the darkness was setting in and the night lights were coming on making it look amazing. The area we were looking down on was very modern with new apartment blocks and corporate buildings. A 2 piece band was singing some English songs and we settled in for a drink at £8 each which was pricey but not bad considering the location and free entry.

After the drinks and taking lots of photos we headed back to the hotel, enjoying the sights and chaos of crossing the roads. So far we have really loved Vietnam, it is such a relief after Cambodia as we thought it would be just as bad but we were pleasantly surprised. We found out that an old colleague from the Edwinns Restaurant days lives in Saigon and at first we didn't understand why but now we can totally get it.