The bus from Dalat was about 7 hours and was so hot so we were pretty glad to be out of it when we arrived. We walked to the hostel which was further than we expected so by the time we arrived we were all boiling hot. Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is so hot which we're all pretty glad about given the last couple of weeks but I think its the hottest weather we've had yet so we were all pretty shocked and sweaty. Our hostel was called Khoi hostel and it was quite nice, quiet which was nice.
We checked in, had dinner (very overpriced and small portions of sandwiches, burgers and spaghetti bol) and had an early night because we were all so tired.
We got up early ready to explore the city and our first stop was the War Remnants museum. I'm so glad we went but I came out of it pretty shell shocked. It was really hard hitting and they held no punches as it was pretty graphic. There was a lot of stuff about the war that I had no idea about and there was quite a lot of propaganda stuff which I found very interesting. Obviously it was all very biased but it was really interesting to see that side of the story.
After a hard morning we had a picnic in the sun in the Toa Dan Park which was nice and since we'd pre bought baguettes it was so cheap, a cheese baguette cost 22000 dong which is about 60 p probably. And it was fantastic.
We spent the afternoon wandering around the Indepence palace, the central post office and notre dam cathedral. It was all very nice, although the palace looked more like a hotel and there was sound checks for a concert being held there which somewhat ruined the atmosphere.
In the evening we went for a cocktail at a nearby skybar which was lovely. It wasn't one of the more famous ones so it wasn't as good as the one in Bangkok, but it did mean that it was 1/3 of the price and no-one had to rent clothes which is always welcome. We then went for a wander through the night market - not very impressive - and for dinner. Kate, Becki and I had claypots with rice and Kates had beef, Becki had chicken and I had tofu and it was so good. Amy had spring rolls and noodles. I really enjoyed it and the restaurant was upstairs on a really sweet balcony with a view to the mental roads and the market which was so nice. Its nice to see the mayhem but not really be a part of it.
I can't get over how mental the bikes are here but I kind of love it. Crossing the road is brilliant although if it was England I'd be terrified. You just walk across and the bikes, cars and buses go around you, although when you look at the people driving the bikes they make no attempt to show that they've seen you. Considering how much I hate crossing roads at home and how bad I am at it I think I'm getting pretty good.
The day after we got up early again to take the local buses to the chu chi tunnels. We'd heard it was really easy and it was way cheaper so we thought we'd give it a go as it would be quite exciting. The buses come every 15 minutes but after waiting for 45 minutes and being sent all over for the bus stop we decided to give in and went with a tour. It ended up being even more expensive than if we'd just have booked on a tour because the tours were full so we ha to hire a private driver. It did only cost $11 each though and it was far more comfy and quicker than a tour would have been so we were pretty happy with the choice. It also meant that we were in a really small group for the tour because we had arrived after the morning group and before the afternoon tour group so it was pretty great. The tunnels were amazing, so interesting to see and very clever. We went through one entrance that was completely hidden when you walk above ground and it was tiny, we were all worried we wouldn't fit but we just about did. Some of the tour was a bit odd as there were real american tanks there that the tour guide told us to pose with, it felt really wrong. Theres also a shooting range on the site which the Canadians that were on our tour tried out. That felt far too insensitive to me and just weird but they were making money from it so I guess I can understand.
We went through one of the tunnels for about 30metres and it was hard work. I wouldn't have wanted to be any bigger than I was or it would have been really difficult so how people lived in ones that were smaller I do not know. They also gave us a taste of what they would eat every day and it was boiled tapioca dipped in a sugary peanut dip. It was nice enough but pretty boring to eat every day.
We got back to HCMC around 5 and sadly the water puppet show we wanted to see was sold out so we went for a drink with some of the people we'd met and watched a football game with them instead. Our cultural Vietnamese evening we had planned turned into a very British evening eating British food - Burgers/ hotdogs and chips - watching a British football game with a group of all British people. Whoops. It was nice though and meant we could have an early night ready for our
6am start for our bus to Cambodia on the 6th.
We are currently on said bus and we have made it across the border to Cambodia. We're on our way to Siam Reap which is near to Angkor Wat and it should take about 12 hours. I'm looking forward to Cambodia as it should be nice weather and a good mix of fun and history.
I really enjoyed Vietnam although I definitely liked the south more than the north. I warmed to the food and a lot of it I ended up quite liking. I'm not keen on noodle soup kinds of dishes but the rest was really nice although not as good as Thai for me. I found the cultural parts of Vietnam so interesting and we spent a while yesterday chatting to a group of Vietnamese students about life here and they asked us questions about home as part of their studies. As a whole we've found the people to be so welcoming and helpful which is the complete opposite of what we'd heard so I don't know if we were just naive and got conned a lot without knowing or if we were lucky but either way we had a really good experience of it as a whole. That's all for now!
