We arrived here on Saturday after a surprisingly easy border crossing, that took less than an hour and by lunch time we were in Ho Chi Minh City. At first it seemed like everyone else had planned their visa's to start on the 1st- there were backpackers everywhere and the first few hostels we tried were fully booked. We eventually found one in the backpacker-area, that again, has everything we need and nothing more. But I suppose beggars can't be choosers and maybe we shouldn't expect too much.

The city itself is very cosmopolitan and almost feels like an Asian Paris, if that's possible. I was told before I arrived that everywhere in the city closes at midnight so we should plan our meals, etc around that. I'm not sure the person has ever been to Saigon because it definitely doesn't. Nowhere seems to close and the bars have beaten us every night, despite our best efforts.
I thought the traffic in Phnom Penh was bad until I saw HCMC. It's feels like a rush hour, 24 hours a day. It makes crossing the road quite an experience. According to the locals, it's the drivers' job to swerve around you and that we should just walk straight- when in Rome I suppose...

I've clocked up a fair few miles around HCMC and although it's huge, I feel like I've got to know it quite well. The Ben Thanh market has everything and anything you could possibly need and more. We also went to see the Bitexco Financial building that towers above the rest of the city at 262m. Unfortunately our budgets didn't quite stretch to a meal on the 40-something floor but luckily for us, the street food here is the best yet and it's also very cheap. A decent meal is between £1-2 and cheapest beers we've found were about 20p for a bottle.
The Vietnamese coffee is a speciality and there are hundreds of coffee shops to try. An iced coffee is a good way to cool down and any coffee is the perfect way to escape the rain! We get rain almost every day for about an hour, usually around 2/3pm. The rain is so heavy it fills the streets in minutes. My first experience of the type of rain that has caused the recent floods in Myanmar, India and Nepal.

The war remnants museum is one of the best museums I've been too. Even though it's relatively one-sided, it's got a huge display of artefacts from the war and there was a lot to learn. We also went to see the Cu Chi tunnels which were fascinating and gave us a real insight into how the Viet Cong fought against the Americans. Food for thought for January, maybe?! The tunnels, that stretched hundreds of kilometres across the jungles of Vietnam, are just over a meter in height and have been made wider in order to fit tourists in. We were only allowed in a 120m stretch but that was more than enough! How they lived under the ground for that amount of time is beyond me.

Aside from the sight-seeing, eating and drinking, the main priority whilst we were in HCMC was to find motorbikes that will hopefully take us north and eventually to Hanoi. We spent almost the whole day looking round different bike shops and soon felt that we could tell an ok one from a bad one, (I don't think there's such thing as a good one). After numerous trials of different bikes I decided on my bike- a mighty 110cc Honda Win. It looks more like a bicycle!
Since test-driving and experiencing the city's traffic first-hand, George decided against buying one and opted for a bus ticket instead, so for the meantime it's just me and my Honda heading north, as of tomorrow. We have planned to meet up at various points and I aim to travel no more than approx 200km in one journey.
I've spent most of my day finding a decent road map, planning my route and getting used to the bike. I've also bought a big waterproof poncho! Next stop is Mui Ne, a small seaside resort about 175km away. I cannot wait to get on the road..