Welcome to bloody Vietnam. We set off from Cambodia feeling upbeat only to find ourselves abandoned 2 hours later at a dusty border town with two fuming Germans and a giant Swiss bloke with buck teeth. Our once-friendly guide left quickly saying ominously "Good Luck" and leaving us in the incapable hands of a non-English speaking bloke called Nam. As in Viet Nam we assumed. We had paid for through tickets to Ho Chi Minh and realised slowlyy that our bus wasnt coming. Our angry European friends resorted to weeping and shouting at everyone. The man who had been helping us, Nam, also started fake-weeping. In between tears he managed to tell us, in broken English that "our bus was broken/double booked" and if only we all gave him extra dollars he could get another bus that his brother could drive. Thus confirming we were victims of the scam that Lonely Planet desperately tried to warn us about and we arrogantly ignored. Rufus and I demanded a refund which we got through mild force and negotiated with a taxi driver to take us the 300km to HCM. The price was a reasonable $100 so we took it. At this stage we couldnt know the journey would take a mind-and-bum-numbing 8 hours. How can 300km take 8 hours? s*** roads, chaotic driving and traffic from hell, thats how. Our driver scowled at us all the way. We were not feeling good about Vietnam.

Finally arrived in HCM, tired and unimpressed. I walked into the hotel where the staff glared at the children - for the first time in 8 months they received some dirty looks, and they werent even doing anything. Then I was greeted by the lines "your room appears to be double booked/broken but for some extra dollars I can find you a better room". For the second time that day we appeared to be getting scammed. Of course I refused to pay and negotiated/demanded loads of stuff, ranging from a double room with an extra bed, breakfast for all and JD Salingers autograph on a black orchid. Rufus and I were now aggressively shrieking racist statements at each other like "these people are all at it, look at them". We got into bed and decided we hated Vietnam and all who sail in her.

The next day wasnt much better. Apparently my negotiations had fallen through at the black orchid and breakfast was only included for two people. Determined not to be outsmarted by "these bloody people" we told them only the children would be eating then and promptly ordered them both two double espressos. Breakfast was obviously noodle soup with raw chicken which we deliberately ordered and then left. Stormed out onto the street where I found a nice pavement cafe only to be charged $3 for a coffee, which I think is a lot in anyones book. Am trying to find positive things to say but it is a struggle. Saigon/HCM is quite pretty I guess. Feels like it might be a nice city. Sun is still shining. Why are the people so horrible, why do they appear to hate tourists so much and why do I make such generalised, sweeping statements? I miss Cambodia.

Have sent Rufus off to get our laptop repaired and he was last seen wearing a childs helmet an hour ago on the back of somebodys motorbike. Computer still broken so am typing this on weird local computer that appears to have no punctuation marks. And the worst thing is, Facebook is banned.