My last stop in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh city, otherwise known as HCMC or Saigon. I took another sleeper bus but gambled and did the day time one which backfired, thought it was a shorter trip but turned out not to be and a waste of a day really.

This city is nicknamed "the city of motorbikes" on account of how many people own a motorbike and the streets and main roads are full of them! There is a roundabout, the name I can't remember but it's regarded as one of the busiest roads in the world.

Ho Chi Minh is massive, probably about the same size as Hanoi but where as Hanoi still had its old look about it with small winding streets and its old quarter with a feel from the past, this city felt a lot more modern and westernised.

I had been told that there isn't an awful lot of tourist things to do in the city, there was the cu chi tunnels but I had already done some war tunnels in hue and there's the Mekong delta which people say isn't that great and I didn't want to waste money for the sake of it, I just wanted a few days in Ho Chi Minh to sort out my bus, hostel and currency for Cambodia.

I did visit the reunification palace which was quite cool, it was set up by the French when took over Vietnam in the 1850s and since the leaders have lived in it and it was significant during the war in the seventies, it shows like the conference rooms, and where the leader would have stayed in the palace at that time and the basement which was used during the war for like communications and plans etc.

Apart from that I didn't go sightseeing in Ho Chi Minh, it was just far too big and there wasn't an awful lot to offer compared to what I've already saw but its a pretty cool city.

The funny thing is the local people, many people say that the further south I'm Vietnam you go, the nice the people are. Which generally speaking I've found to be true. Some are very curious about westerners because a lot of the time you could be the only white person around. For example I was just walking down the street minding my own business and a middle aged woman just stopped me and said "hey I like your shirt, where you get it from" to which I replied "errr England" then she started talking to me and got me to sit down at a table outside a bakery and ask about what I was doing and where I've been and what I've been up to on my travels, and also that her daughter was going to Leeds for university in September. Just a little five minute Conversation and she left.

It's a weird experience because most the time they just want to sell you something or try and scam you, but some like to just practice talking English, or are just curious of where your from and stuff, or just say that they like David beckham.

On my second night I went out for a few drinks with some people in the hostel, we went to the aptly named "beer street" which was literally just one long road with loads of people sitting outside what look like corner shops with loads of plastic little chairs and tables, and with it being so busy a lot of the locals were also out and there was so many people we would be sitting pretty much nearly in the middle of the road but it was a great atmosphere to be in with most of the people in this district of Saigon just chilling out and having a few drinks and for drinks costing a dollar it was way cheaper than the clubs so we hung around there all night.

On my last day I chilled out, got my currency changed and already had a hostel and my bus sorted for Cambodia, I planned on going to the bitexco tower which was the tallest building in Saigon and the view would have been great but the weather turned bad and it wouldn't be worth it. On the night I did manage to meet up with a mate from nha trang and found Tasso again and had a couple of beers for the last time in nam.