Blogs from District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 35

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 ... read more

Xin Chao everyone! We safely arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), this time by the luxury of air and even with no visa hassles – thumbs up all around! One of the first things we did was to withdraw some cash out of the ATM, it was a nice feeling to withdraw 5 million from your bank account (even if it was only in Vietnamese dong!). We jumped in a taxi and made our way to Kate’s flat which was a small village called An Phu (District 2) just a short taxi ride away from District 1 (the city centre). We couldn’t wait to soak up some home luxuries for a week or so whilst at Kate’s. Saigon is a big bustling city that is getting more modern every day, swamped by motorbikes going in ... read more

Den gamle hovedstaden i sør. Så kom vi da endelig til Ho Chi Minh, eller Saigon som den opprinnelig het. Det navnet brukes da også fremdeles av innbyggerne i byen. Det var flere som vi snakket med som spesielt poengterte det. Yngve hadde vært i byen en gang tidligere, faktisk for mere enn 10 år siden, og byen var da allerede ganske så bråkete. Men siden den gangen ser det ut som de gamle sykkeldrosjene har måttet vike plassen. De finne enda, men i mye mindre antall enn tidligere. Byen er preget av at den er i stadig vekst. Det er masse trafikk, og det bygges mye nytt. De store hotellkjedene er på plass med sine enorme nybygg. Men vi valgte å bo på det gamle hotellet som ligger sentralt i distrikt 1 - REX heter ... read more

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at peak hour and the first thing you notice are the streets are overrun by motorcycles merging in every different direction and ceaseless horns honking. Although we’ve travelled quite a bit, at first glance, Vietnam can give you quite a shock. The craziness of the streets is nothing like I’ve ever seen before. However, once you settle into the place in a few hours, you realise that the Vietnamese are friendly people and you never feel unsafe. Although you’re always going to get someone marketing to you or trying to sell something, they’ll always do it with a smile. We didn't do much the first night in Hoi Chi Minh City as we were tired from our long day in Singapore and all the travelling. It was about 7pm ... read more

A spell of bad weather can start to feel like a virus that you carry from place to place. First rain, then floods, then more rain followed me from Hanoi all the way down to Nha Trang on the central coast. For a week I never felt really, truly dry. I'm inclined to believe that my bad luck charm came in the form of a bespectacled American who, when I asked where he was from, replied "Oh, nowhere really." Oh, I thought, one of those. He's a traveler. (When I pressed him further he finally admitted that he was from Pennsylvania and had a house in Las Vegas of all places) "I just travel. Been traveling for 2 years now." He said this in a kind of nonchalant way that was almost a challenge--as if he ... read more