Saigon AKA Scooter City

We thought we'd be clever with our travels this time and get the night bus! This meant we'd save on a nights accomodation because we'd be travelling AND we'd get a full day in Saigon after a good sleep on the bus . . . .it didn't really work :) We arrived in Saigon at about 10.30am, after very little sleep, tired and not really knowing where the bus had dropped us! We decided to get a proper taxi to our guest house as Sinead didn't fancy the scooter taxi's with her big bag on - what a mistake! Off we went for about 15 minutes via an ATM to the guest house he 'apparently' knew, we both were a bit wary as the meter was whirring up by the second - sure enough after our 5th or 6th week 'savvy' travelling we fell victim to our first scam artist! The taxi cost us about 17 dollars to a guesthouse that actually closed a year ago and was barely a 5 minute walk from where the bus dropped us - sickened! Not only that but one of his buddies was there waiting for us to take us to his guesthouse instead! Oh well, lesson learned and we now know the government taxi firms to use which are 100% reliable and cheap as chips! Later that day we bumped into a couple of lads we'd met in Laos, they'd had the same problem and the driver wouldn't even open the boot until they coughed up! Suckers!

So after checking into our very clean but very small room we hit the streets to explore! The first thing we noticed about Vietnam - or Saigon at least - is that they're very business oriented compared with the other countries and they know how to make their money through the tourism industry and from tourists in general. This is supposedly down to the heavy Chinese influence and every 2nd shop is a tour operator offering all sorts of trips from Vietnam to worldwide! Being such a vast City we decided to book onto a full day city tour for the following day (we didn't trust the taxi's/scooters or cycleos) and it turned out to be our best decision for a while!

After booking our trip and saying 'No Thanks' to our millionth sunglass/book/fan/zippo/bracelet/bookmark/hat/watch/cigarette/DVD/shoeshine/torch/lazer/umbrella/fruit/meatball/massage salesperson we went out for some Vietnamese cuisine! We were charmed into a little street cafe by a hyper little lady with a big smile and perfect English who insisted on selecting our dinner for us - oh well what the hell! It was actually pretty good although our food seemed very similar apart from the meat so we asked what we'd just eaten. We had vietnamese spring rolls with chilli sauce to start (which were nice but the same as all of SE Asia) followed by 'Chicken in a Clay Pot' and 'Pork in a Clay Pot' (which I'm not convinced wasn't actually dog). We polished it off with the little lady watching our every facial expression and throwing in the odd 'very good yes?' 'Very tasty yes?' and bailed out while we could, it was a good, cheap meal but would've been nice to have a bit more variety!

Off we went to find a bar (for a change) and guess who we ran into 'The Essex Girls' . . .that's right folks, Leanne and Neesha from our earlier installments :) After a rather cringy group hug in the middle of the street they introduced us to their new friends Alex (M) and Alex (F) whom we spent the rest of the evening with as well as a couple of Aussies and Yanks we met along the way!

Thursday morning 0630hrs after 3hrs sleep we were up and raring to go on our big city tour - honest! A quick dive into 'Bobby Brewers' coffee house on the way to the tour office soon sorted us out and we were looking forward to the sights! During the day we saw the following sights which you can check out in our pics -

War Remnants Museum - Documenting the atrocities of the Vietnam war this was really interesting but a little one sided!

China Town - 2 whole distrects of Saigon became the settlement of droves of Chinese.

Thien Hau Pagoda - This old Chinese temple symbolises their arrival and celebrates the goddess of the sea.

Handicap Handicraft - A factory and sales room that employs the hadicapped of Saigon, many of which have genetic deformities and disabilities as a result of 'Agent Orange' and other chemicals used by the USA during the war.

Reunification Palace - An impressive building at which the first communist tanks crashed through the gates on the morning of 30 April 1975 when Saigon surrendered to the North.

The Notre Dame Cathedral - Built between 1877 and 1883 this huge Catholic Cathedral was built in red brick shipped over from France along with all other building materials!

The General Post Office - An impressive building with world clocks and a huge overbearing portrait of Ho Chi Minh.

City Hall - Hmmm we think we missed this one by accident haha, speaks for itself I suppose.

This was by far the best organised tour we've been on since arriving in SE Asia and for $10 each to include all entries and lunch (if rather measly) along with a friendly guide with fluent English - she even sang to us :). We were absolutely shattered after the long day (and night before) so after an amazing pizza at 'Good Morning Vietnam' restaurant - which was an Italian restaurant??? we said our goodbyes to the essex girls AGAIN and were tucked up by 10pm for a flight up to Danang and Hoi An the next morning! I love the smell of Napalm in the morning!

S&M