Cambodia was fantastic and I definitely now have a case of city blues. Ho Chi Minh is crazy!!! There are motorbikes everywhere, even on the pavements. To cross the road we were told to walk slowly but surely and the bikes in theory should drive round you (definitely scary the first time you walk through the middle of rush hour!!).
I'm determined not to judge the country by one city but I'm definitely not feeling the love here!! My cough (I picked up in Cambodia) is far worse with all the smog, I'm coughing so much I'll end up with a hernia! nice!
We didn't have anywhere booked to stay and after wandering in a few overpriced hotels, a little old lady stopped us and asked if we were looking for a room. She led us down an alley way full of people cooking and socialising outside their houses. We followed her into one of them, through the living room and up the stairs where there was a basic but nice 3 bed room with an en suite bathroom for a bargain price!!! Result!!! She told us that she was the guide and lived next door, a lot of the homes in the community have rooms for rent but she is the only one who speaks English. I'm so glad she found us, we would never have found these rooms on our own, and a bonus too that we are living with the locals. What does baffle me a little is that the entire family sleep on the living room floor, yet there are so many floors and rooms in this house. Good money from tourists I suppose, it does mean that at night when we return we have to quietly tip toe round them!!
We went in search for the Laos Embassy today and ran into our friend Raj from our Cambodian tour!! While waiting for our visas to be processed we had a few games of pool and said goodbye to him again (he's flying tonight). We also accidently found the the Notre Dame Church, which looks pretty similar to the original but very new!
Tomorrow we're getting the bus north to the seaside!!!! I really can't wait!!!!
