Eight AM in Vietnam and we had visas to collect. I was dubious about getting mine as the passport photo that I had taken for me in the Philippines made me look like a serial killer.

We happily found through our research that you can purchase your visa for Vietnam when you arrive there. You pay £10 online to get the documentation required emailed to you, print it off, fill it out and provide it with a photograph of yourself when you get there and Bob's your uncle! There is a $25 dollar processing fee when you arrive however, which is to be expected but why you have to pay in American dollars we don't know.

First impressions of Vietnam are great. Ho Chi Minh City (from now on written as HCMC) is clean and intriguing. Its colonial French history has left in its wake a metropolis of beauty where Asian and french culture has been squashed together to create a city filled with fairy lights, wooden shutters and small balconies stacked on top of each other over small bakeries packed with croissants.

Vietnam has been described as the latest Asian dragon to awaken from slumber, due to its economic boom of late which has seen the country flourish and add to its rich history and culture.

We have arrived in the twenty day Vietnamese holiday of New Year and whilst the locals say that the city is quiet there seem to be an army of mopeds and taxis adorning the streets! In the night we crossed the haphazardous streets like locals, meaning that we just waded slowly into the traffic whilst everything motorised zipped around us.

After a long reprieve from our flights and rest in our hostel, the lovely Town House 373, we set out to find a famous Vietnamese baguette shop recommended to us by our hostel hostess. The walk was a sturdy twenty minutes but we got to see tonnes of interesting sights and bars along the way. The baguette shop itself was brilliant! It looked dilapidated but rustic from the street with a local contingent of locals queuing outside waiting for their 35,000 dong baguette. Chelsea refused to eat there and later had a Starbucks' sandwich instead (criminal). She missed a treat however as the baguette was coated in a rich pate before chilli, chicken, pork and beef were added with a delicious mayonnaise. The whole thing was a taste explosion and I ate it lovingly until I came to a gristly bit of ham near the end with made me cast it aside with a shiver.

We then got a taxi to the famous Bitexco Skyscraper, the tallest in Vietnam, where we went to the acclaimed Bar 52 for a cocktail. Enjoying an espresso martini and the 360 degree view of the city was wonderful, even if the 52 floor drop did give us both a whisper of vertigo.

With an optimistic view of our time in Vietnam ahead we went to bed and slept in air conditioned bliss.