Good Morning Vietnam! - Saigon

6.00am start for our bus at 7.00am, which actually turned out to be a 7.30 pick up and didn't leave the city until 8.30!

There was an American on the bus who lived in Saigon and was telling the girl next to him where was best to go so I spent most of the journey ear-wigging! At one of the many stops we bought 2 hard boiled eggs from the locals (3000 reil, $0.75) and a baguette (1000 riel, $0.25) and made egg sandwhiches! The food ont eh stalls is brilliant! It was the usual karoke videos playing all the way to Saigon, which is beginning to give us a headache! There videos are so funny and their lyrics are hilarious ... " I love you, loving you like the mouse loves the rice!!!" Brilliant!

The bus took us right tot he border where we simple had to get out where border control went through the passports for the whole bus in one big block and then let us board the bus again to cross the border - much easier then crossing on foot into Cambodia at Poipet!

Arriving in Saigon there were the usual rabble of locals stopping you getting off the bus again so I asked the American guy, Tim, where we were on the map and if he could point us in the right direction of the main backpacker area to find a guesthouse. He eneded up taking 5 of us right to the road we needed and pointed out good places to eat along the way. We walked to Madame Cuc's 64 (lonely planet again!) but they didn't have any rooms so took us to their sister hotel, where for $15 a night, we had a lovely clean room, air con, hot water and free breakfast.

Had a wander to get our bearings and went for Pho Bo (Beef Noodle Soup) at one of the places that TIm pointed out. Our definition of clean is getting re-defined everyday! The place was on the side of the road and had a table full of steaming hot beef joints, bigger than my torso and covered in flies with a little girl sat over them blowing them off every now and then! Luckily we didn't see this until we had sat down and ordered becuase the beef was the tastiest yet! It was so nice and the 2 of us ate and drank for about 50,000 riel, about $3!

Went to drink in Santa Cafe, another little shack on the side of the road where we witnessed a moto crash and the locals just got up, c\brushed themselves down and rode off! There were two American guys sat near us at the time who said that was nothing(!) and we all got talking. They gave us some pointers on where to go and what to look out for.

Saigon on Foot

We had a nice lie in today, 8.00am!!! Free breakfast included a choice of bread with cheese/jam/butter or soup noodles, plus fresh fruit. The dragon fruit is so nice and the manager went to the kitchen to get us extra fruit when he saw that we liked it! We were so full but had to eat it!

After being on so many tours in big cities we decided to set out on foot and go at our own pace, starting at Benh Thanh MArket. This palce is huge, colorful and housing everything you need from deodorant to blankets and trinkets! It is so big, there is a mao when you go in that tells you where each section is (the market is sectioned into materials, cosmetics, food etc).

From here we walked through some meandering street markets, being more forceful with the constant requests to go to wherever we are going by moto/tuk-tuk instead of on foot, tot he Reunification Palace. On the way, we saw a local football match being played so we sat and watched. Lee kept dreaming of them getting up and asking him to go and play ( I think his words where he could be the loosing sides hero!); they never asked but Lee was happy enough watching and re-fuelling his football levels!

The Palace didn't seem anything special compared to those we had already seen (bad I know!) but it was surrounded by old army tanks and aircraft. From here we walked to the Notre Dame Cathedral which looked beautiful but wasn't open until 3.00pm so we crossed the road to the post office, which is a sight worth seeing even without post to send! The French have had a big impact on arictecture here so everything is really pretty and lovely to just wander around.

Right across from the Post Office was a great little place for lucnh, I can't remember the name but it was really tasty and cheap, again we both ate and drank for about $3!

Next stop the City Opera House which led us to the posh part of town where we saw the intercontinetal hotel that we could have stayed in!!! I don;t think they would have let us in - we definately didn't fit in around the posh parts but we didn't care! It has such a nice atmosphere here that we were quite happy, and felt really safe, just wandering about looking at all the buildings and taking in the relaxed fell about the place. The posh part of town had some really unusual shops with great clothes that were unique and art shops everywhere. I fell in love with an art gallery called Tara and Kys where they had art work of Siem Reap and places that we had been to.

Back to the Catherdral for peoning time but there was a wedding going on so we made our way to "Fannys", a famous ice cream parlour that gave lee hours of fun thinking up inuendos. ON the way we stumbled across a shop that stopped Lee in his tracks.... it was a giant Manchester United door with a gigantic picture of Ronaldo! It was the happiest I have seen him so far!

Fanny's lived up to it's reputation and we had the most amazing ice cream and the waitresses were lovely. They served free ice cold water which was great after walking around Saigon in the heat all day! A welcome relief from the heat.

We made our way back to the hotel to go on the internet to try and make a decision on where to go next, Mui Ne (pretty beaches) or Dalat (highland tribes). We managed to convince each other a few times of the opposite one so decided to go to STA to ask for their opinion. ALl their buses to Dalat had been cancelled, although I was dissapointed as I had Dalat as my first choice but we took it as fate that we should be going to Mui Ne. It was looking to be our only chance at a beach in South East Asia as when we start heading north it will be cold.

Booked our open bus, all the way to Hoi An for $11!!! BArgain. Saigon to Mui ne, Mui ne to Nha Trang then Nha Trang to Nio An all for $11. We then booked a flight Hoi An to Hanoi for $65 each as there is not much to see in between adn it would take too much time to travel this distance any other way.

Went for drink in Hoi Mai, a great place for cheap beer ($0.70) and free pool, and some greasy burgers in Santa Cafe (not he best food choice we have made so far!)

We then headed for this little shop that says on the outside that it is a Fuji Film shop, and no bigger than Mum and Dads porch! They just stack tables and chairs ont he pavement and serve plastic jugs of beer for 10,000 dong ($0.70). IT was so surreal and the American guys we had met the previous night told us that it constantly gets shut down by the police, but all they do is take the tables off the street and let you carry on drinking on the side of the road. When the police leave, they put the tables and chairs back out! Wathcing Lee squeeze into a playschool chair with a jug of beer was a sight to remember!

Some long overdue phone calls home and then off to bed for another early start to catch our bus to Mui Ne.