Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon)

We arrived in HCMC expecting it be very much like Hanoi but we were pleasantly surprised! It is a much more modern city, and the people are noticably friendlier! We arrived on bus (our usual method of travel these days) and we were organised enough to know of a couple of guest houses just 2 mins walk from where the bus dropped us off - so off we headed down a very narrow but busy alleyway which we otherwise wouldn't have ever gone down! We found somewhere to stay for just the first night as they were unfortunately fully booked for the next couple of nights. After dinner we had our pick of the other guesthouses in the area as there are plenty and they are all on the same street luckily!

That evening and the next day we spent some time looking around the area and the city, as well as moving to the guest house around the corner. The next day we had planned on doing a city tour which seemed the best value for money way to see all of the sights - but it was Vietnam's Independence Day and therefore key places like the Independence Palace and Museum were closed! So we were forced ( I know it's terrible) to have another day of exploring a bit more of the city. This time we decided to walk a bit further out and also to do a spot of shopping! I was looking for some new glasses and so we spent quite a lot of time trying on millions of pairs of specs - most of which were all fairly similar and some actually the same. Jo was very patient I would like to add. The first opticians we went to did not speak great English and so did not seem to understand the importance of a thin lens - with my prescription being -7.5 in both eyes this was paramount to not ending up with a pair of jam jar bottoms! So we tried another where the actual optician himself came to speak to us about it and was able to give us a reasonable idea of how thin he could get the lenses. So they were ordered and ready to collect in a matter of hours! They are a bit thick around the edges but not bad all in for GBP 48 including the designer frames - this would normally cost me at least 3 times this much due to the type of lenses I have to have and the frames being more than GBP 15!! He also re-tested my eyes for his own benefit and told me that he thought they were -8.0 left eye and -7.5 right eye so looks like I'm still getting blinder!

I took my spanky new glasses to the bar as seen as we watched the Liverpool Vs Aston Villa match that night in a bar, all was well (with the bar not the match) until Jo spotted a rat running from the men's toilet and in to the kitchen! We tried to ignore it as luckily we'd almost eaten there a few nights ago but for some unknown reason decided against it! Until we saw another, and then a third one...this time the cheeky chappy came scurrying out of the toilet, across the kitchen counter and on the glass rack right in front of us...he crawled all over the glasses and plates as we tried to get the attention of a member of staff. When we turned back to him he was now having a tasty drink out of a tin of carnation milk - the member of staff giggled at him and laughed whilst clapping her hands to get rid of him (well back in to the kitchen not out of the building) - so we gathered that this wasn't a rare sight and no-one semed the slightest bit bothered! We gently reminded her to throw the tin away - which she did when we prompted. We went back to the hotel to watch the second half!

The city tour started off in the same bizarre (in a good way) way that it continued. We waited at the travel agency at 8am as agreed and we were told the bus wouldn't be long...after about 20 mins a young lad and an old man turned up on motorbikes and threw hats at us - "not the whole day's tour on a motorbike?'' I asked the lady who had sold us the ticket based on a bus tour...nope just our transport to somewhere else she told us! We donned the helmets and ended up at another tour acency just around the corner where it became apparent that the old man was our tour guide - and there were no buses available so the 3 of us on the trip (us and a very nice young guy from Oz) would go in a taxi with the 79 year old guide! The guy was crazy but he spoke a reasonable level of English and didn't shut up all day - he took us (with the speed of a twenty year old) to the War Remenants Museum first. He let walk around freely as it's signed in English after telling us about his job for the US embassy during the US/Vietnam war - and he made sure we knew he was not a communist but a "free man of peace only", he was very interesting. The Museum was the highlight for me in HCMC - although it is the most sickening place I have been to, to date. The photo imagery and documentation is clear and detailed - by three quarters of the way round we both needed to go out for some air; to dry eyes and dry desperately to hold down our breakfasts. The photos are raw and gut wrenching. But we followed this up with a visit to a very peaceful pagoda and then the claustrophobic and chaotic indoor market. Lunch was served at the tour agency; rice, a fried egg, and morning glory!!! In the afternoon we covered a handicapped handicrafts village; the Independence Palace; the General Post Office (it's just a big post office in a nice building) and Notre Dame cathedral. All in all it was a great day out and we had a great guide.

The day after we were very sad to leave HCMC - it's a great city that's modern but still with some character and the people here were very friendly, and we were sad to leave Vietnam as it has surprised us a little. But the show must go on...to Cambodia.