16th Jan - Ho Chi Minh – here we come... aka. “Bad Taxi Day”

Our hotel have arranged a taxi to take us to the airport at 6am – another early start! All seems to be going well, until ‘Taxi Driver Fatigue Syndrome’ seems to be striking again....our driver even plays up to this and finds it amusing to pretend to fall asleep on the steering wheel....we are not amused. Although we are not fans of his intermittent singing (yelping more like) we hope this will keep him from the land of nod. On arriving at the airport, he proptly asks us for a tip due to the early start (we have already paid for the taxi to the hotel). On explaining that we don’t have any cash (and if we did, we wouldn’t be giving it to him) he begins tutting, open palm still stretched out, insisting we pay him money! Andy does well in making it very clear we will not be giving him any money. He is not a happy bunny and we are not impressed! On checking in, we are asked if we would like to go on an earlier flight that is boarding now. Unsure of how this would logically work (we haven’t been through security etc yet?) and more importantly, on learning it is a smaller plane we decline the offer and set about killing some time before our flight!

On arriving in HCMC we are relived to feel the climate is considerably warmer, no more wearing 6 layers – yay! On exiting the airport we are asked by a staff member for the luggage check in slips (in all the flights we have been on, we have never been asked for these – so of course we don’t have them, most likely in the magazine pocket on the aeroplane) so they can check we have taken the correct luggage from the carousel. A good idea in theory, in terms of security – it would useful if they would inform you at check in that you will need them later though! After a confused few minutes, the staff member gives up and lets us past. We are relieved to see there is a similar taxi system to Bangkok. On being allocated our taxi for the trip to the hotel, we begin to relax. A little prematurely. As we pull out of the airport, we ask the driver to put the meter on, he refuses. We insist – he still refuses. Instead, we ask how much the journey will be, at which point he starts waving small paper vouchers at us and speaking very fast! Hmm – this is not good. Our driver soon calms down and we begin to relax a little. The journey to the hotel seems to take forever, a little concerning as we know the hotel isn’t that far from the airport. Fortunately we have a rough idea of how much the taxi should be....well, this just highlights how badly the taxi driver tries to rip us off then we arrive!! 10 times what the fare should be. He even tries to use one of the paper vouchers as proof of the fare...printed on it is “500 dong” he exclaims “5000 dong!!” – we’re not blind! As the argument becomes more and more heated (he even throws the vouchers across the car), he eventually backs down, accepting the money we give him – but he does pretty much kick us out of his car, and shout at us whilst we stand on the street (oh and manages to make a nice hand gesture to Andy in the process) A great first impression of HCM! I was just relieved we were right outside out hotel when this all kicked off. Not a nice experience at all!

We are relieved that checking into the hotel is a nice, smooth process and we’re pleased with our room. From our eventful taxi journey from the airport , we are amazed to see HCMC has roads 5 times the width of Hanoi – if we thought Hanoi was chaotic, this is just mayhem. On our boat trip to Halong Bay, we had heard that there are approx 300 deaths a day across Vietnam caused by road traffic accidents, and we are sad to say – we are not surprised. For our first full day we visit the Reunification Palace (aka Independence Palace). Unfortunately when we arrive, it is closed for the lunchtime break so we head to a restaurant across the road from the palace for our own lunch break. It looks pretty from the outside, however the waitress at the door doesn’t look particularly impressed when we rock up and ask for a table. We would normally look at the menu first, but as there wasn’t one out on display, we decided to head straight in. Big mistake. As it turns out, it is full of very wealthy looking locals and a number of ex-pats...not exactly the sort of place us two backpackers will fit in. More annoyingly, most of the food is about 5 times the cost of places we have been eating in! Making a careful selection of dim sum dishes, we decide to have a light lunch. All in all, it was probably one of the worst restaurants we’ve been in! The food was okay, not amazing, not bad, but it is the staff that really shock us! Never before have we met such rude, inefficient and unfriendly people! Job satisfaction – zero. In particular, we don’t appreciate being glared at whilst checking the bill, as if we are going to do a runner! I’d rather eat in a £1-a-meal hawker centre any day! ( At least they don’t charge for use of the serviettes – no, really!) After our bad dining experience, we enter the palace and join a tour group. Such a beautiful building! Built in 1966 to serve as South Vietnam’s presidential palace , It has been left as it was on the 30th April 1975, when the communist tank crashed the gate as Saigon surrendered. The decor in allot of the palace is absolutely stunning, ornate wood carvings, plush upholstery, ornate chandeliers, and pristine carpets/rugs. My dad would love the gambling room, with its mah jong table all set up! - Not too shabby at al! It is particularly interesting to see the military operation rooms in the basement, with all their communication and logistic planning equipment – looking somewhat dated now! Andy and I still remain somewhat confused about the political history of Vietnam, and the divisions that existed – but it is an insight to hear about this monumental day in Vietnam’s history. We then move onwards to the military museum, illustrating all the events of the Vietnam (or rather, American) War. Un surprisingly, it doesn’t offer the most objective account of the war, however, it is undeniable that there were some terrible atrocities inflicted upon Vietnam, in terms of the natural terrain of the country and also, its population. It provides some valuable background information with regard to the current status of Vietnam and level of development it has achieved. Our trip to the museum is mentally and emotionally exhausting!

The next day entails a far more light hearted activity – a trip to Ben Thanh Market, to marvel at the huge variety of items on sale – souvenirs, clothing, arts & crafts pieces, toiletries and lots of food! Something we have found quite annoying in Vietnam is how persistent people can be, whether it is tuk tuk drivers, or people trying to sell sunglasses (we have sunglasses on!) and lonely planet books (we have our lonely planet book in our hands!) It wouldn’t be so bad if they would accept our first response of “no thank you”, but rather it continues until our 4th or 5th response, by which point, we sound increasingly annoyed! Ben Thanh was particularly bad for this, not only were the people persistent, but they physically grabbed hold of us – Andy was lucky enough to be pinched by one girl! Ouch! We cant deny though, the food is great! We are in fact a little concerned that we may evolve into giant spring rolls, not to mention the beer bellies developing – 50p a bottle!

Vietnam has been a tiring place to visit, as getting anywhere is quite hard work. Walking anywhere, requires you to “psyche yourself up” to cross the roads. We have got our team work down to a fine art – it involves constant movement of looking left, then right, then left...then right....Im sure we look a little crazy, but if it stops us getting squashed - i don’t care! Also the air quality in the cities is a bit of a shock to the system, by the end of each day, we really do feel rather grubby!

Vietnam has been a fantastic experience. It still has a long way to go in terms of building up its infrastructure, but this is of course our westernised point of view. There would be no point in going travelling if every country were the same, and Vietnam has certainly been different to anywhere else we have been.

What will Cambodia have to offer ? At least If it involves busy traffic – Vietnam has left us fully prepared!