Saigon (officially Ho Chi Minh City) is one of those places that I always imagined as impossibly exotic and exciting, originating from the mythology surrounding the American war and its colonial past before that, I guess. As a consequence I tried to deliberately play it down in my mind so it would have achievable standards, however as it turns out, I shouldn't have bothered. The whole place is fizzing with energy from the moment you get into a cab at the airport and by the time we reached our hotel we were already loving the place and itching to get out and explore.

Bar an overnight trip to the Mekong Delta (next blog installment) we passed the next five days exploring as much as the oppressive heat would allow us. I think everyone will be impressed that Rachelle and I managed to spend an entire day on a self guided walking tour of the city taking in Notre Dame Cathedral, the Reunification Palace, and the War Remnants museum (very upsetting - bring hankies). It will come as no surprise to anyone that the day finished with happy hour in the Sheraton rooftop bar looking at the sunset with a cocktail.

On our return from the Mekong Delta Rachelle felt some pampering was in order so booked into a spa while I tried to educate myself with some Vietnamese modern art before we ventured out into the city on Saturday night. Being Saigon, this was not exactly what we expected; after an excellent dinner (if not remarkable) we made our way to the Hotel Etoile which has been seized by the Local Peoples Committee but is covered with hundreds of geckos feasting on the insects attracted by the high powered lights. En route we passed the central post office next to the Cathedral (another fantastic piece of French colonial architecture which comprises most of Saigon). There we saw thousands of people on motorbikes just sitting around until some unseen signal made them all leap up shouting and they zoomed off in a mass around the streets waving Vietnamese flags pursued vainly by one or two policemen.

To try to escape from the madness we made our way to the local cinema which we eventually found through a Christmas garden, up four flights of a department store, through an arcade/bowling alley and then up a lift for nine more floors. Of course by the time we found it all the movies had started so we made our way back out of the retail warren onto the streets where the running battle / celebration / convoy was still making the streets impassable.

We then fled into a park and found ourselves in the middle of an AIDS awareness concert with ladies on unicycles, a strange chap who we think was singing patriotic songs and some appalling choreography (Megan you would have cried). We couldn't cope anymore at that point so we legged it back to the hotel and had a drink to calm ourselves before the trip to Bangkok.

Mekong Delta coming up soon so keep checking for more exciting adventures…

Love Antony & Rachelle