After leaving Space Station 9 at Hong Kong Star Trek HQ we landed in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. This place was pretty basic compared to Hong Kong - reminded me of Fiji Airport actually.
First thing that happened was a bunch of taxi drivers virtually jumped on us, and tried to hussle us into getting into their taxi. They said cheap cheap price of 5 US dollars. I said I wanted a bus. They said buses were finished. Just at that time I saw a couple of buses roll in. Needless to say we took the bus for about 10 cents into town. (We got used to people trying to rip us off fairly quickly, and you gotta be prepared for it when travelling in the major cities of Vietnam where they have heaps of tourists to practice on).
Accommodation was approx 7 - 12 US dollars. Books were about 40 cents. Food was cheap at about $2.50 each per meal.
We did a tour of Saigon on cyclo - which is a bike pushed by a guy peddling you along. It was insane! Motorbikes and cyclos everywhere. Everyone, and I mean everyone was making good use of their horn. Children and old ladies would just waltz across the road in the middle of 300 or so bikes screaming towards them. Our cyclos would regularly travel up the wrong side of the street, and frequently through one way traffic. Miraculously a tide of traffic would just open around them. Ho Chi Minh is a massive place with 21 separate and distinct districts and millions upon millions of people.
Whilst in this area we did a trip to the Mekong Delta. We saw plenty of floating markets with goods being advertised by way of bamboo pole hanging a piece of fruit or vege. On the same trip we saw how vermicelli noodles were made (by hand).
