Woke up in my very HOT room at 3am, but went back to sleep, woke up and thought i had better check the time and it was 12pm!!!!! I quickly had a showerand in the process wet everything in the bathroom, dressed and then the phone rang for me to change rooms. I am now in room 111, it was very noisy with banging, crashing and shouting last night, maybe this room will be quieter!

The restaurant in the hotel was closed, even though it was lunchtime so i had to go out for food. Took a walk out towards the massive market and saw a Pho24, Wong had recommended i try that last night so i went in there. I had Pho Ga - like a chicken noodle soup, with water and some free chewing gum - random. It was very nice and everyone was friendly and spoke a little english. They leave the skin on chicken tho which i will have to remember! The meal was 49,000VND which i cant really get used to yet!

I changed some dollars into Dong yesterday in the hotel, i got an exchange rate of 17.2% - therefore making my dollar worth 17,000VND. Ha!

As i type it has just started raining... RAINING!!! Really bucketing it down. Oh well, it probably wont last long and its still really warm. Weird though, all the scooter riders now have poncho's on and people are sheltering under the trees that line the roads. Oh and it is thundering and lightening, bit of a tropical storm.

I bought some water from a street vendor for 5000VND, cheaper than the minibar in the hotel.

There is still no sign of Claire yet, i hope she is in a taxi in this rain and i hope she arrives soon! Im itching to get out and see stuff, but dont really want to go on my own, people stare as you go past them, suppose ill get used to it, but id rather get used to it with Claire!

Going to get my book from upstairs and sit in the foyer, its nice and i can wait for Claire. I have observed that Ho Chi Minh is like New York - but only in the fact that is seems you can't get a taxi for love nor money in the rain! Ha! And the Vietnamese dont like getting their heads wet! The shop across the road is called Australia Tshirt - dont know what it sells...

Bye for now X

10.40pm

Just got back from having dinner with Claire. Her tour doesnt end until tomorrow, but we had some dinner and now she has gone back to her hotel. She will be back in the morning for good. We when to Pho24 again. This time i had Pho Bo - Beef noodle soup with spring rolls this time and a 7up, 79,000VND. The spring rolls are gorgeous, i dont want to think about what is in them but they are yummy! Full again now and ready for bed. We have a breakfast voucher for tomorrow, we didnt know we got breakie so thats a bonus! Its between 6 and 9.30 - so no sleeping until 12 again!

Its still really hot and humid, the aircon in the bedroom is a god send! We will look at the guidebooks tomorrow and decide what to do for the rest of the time we are here.