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Published: January 17th 2011
Ho Chi Minh City... Vietnamese for "One hundred billion motorbike" city
Keiko’s friend Ky picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel. Keiko’s first experience of Vietnam was like most people’s… the traffic and the millions of motor scooters! Ky told us that Vietnam does not have a ‘walking culture’ therefore everyone gets around even the shortest distances by car if they are rich, by taxi or motorbike. Like Chris had seen in Hanoi before, whole families can be transported on a bike, so can animals, boxes, construction material and 50 inch plasma TV’s! In this part of the world a two lane road can easily accommodate 6 cars, 34 motorbikes, 7 bicycles and 2 freaked out chooks across it.
It took 45 minutes to drive the 8km from the airport to the city. Ky told us that this was good going as in rush hour it can take over 2 hours! We got to the hotel, a very nice place called Tan Hai Long 3 Hotel where we were upgraded to a superior room, very nice. We went out for a night walk and took on the traffic by foot. Chris has had some
HCMC
Wanna double on my bike?experience with anything goes type traffic having negotiated the streets of Hanoi, Cairo and Phnom Penh previously. But for Keiko, who finds it difficult to jay walk in Cairns, it was a nerve racking experience. Her fingernails are still embedded in Chris’s arm.
The next day Ky took us for lunch at a special Vietnamese restaurant where you can walk around the restaurant to see how each delicacy is prepared. We chose some of the more unique dishes, and had our beer served over ice.
The evening saw us drop in to a Japanese style restaurant just for a beer, but the food looked so good (and it was so cheap) we stayed for dinner... Back to the hotel to get ready for the next day's trip to Phu Quoc
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