Ho Chi Minh

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It was difficult leaving Hoi An after chilling out for five days but my time in Vietnam was running out and i was spending too much money on clothing. I think they day before I left the tailor I had been using let me borrow a motorbike for a trip 40 km south to the Cham ruins at My Son. It was fun to get on a motorbike again but the ruins themself were not that impressive. Partly I think its difficult to compare anything to Angkor Wat in Cambodia which is incredible and massive but also the temple complex recieved quite the barrage during the war. Or maybe I've become a temple snob... On the way back I got caught in a rainstorm without accessories and finally pulled over into this small bike mechanics shop and hung out with the two guys that worked there for 20 minutes exhausting the phrasebook and hand signals trying to communicate. But they were excited to have such an exotic visitor and i played some music on my ipod for them and took some photos with them. Its always nice to have this random interactions with regular people. Vietnamese people are so friendly and warm all over the place. A few times in the tourist zones that can be unfriendly if you're not going to drop some money there but even that is rare.

Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon was a shock the first day. First the climate was much warmer than Hoi An and the city is much larger than I expected. And at first I had a couple of unfriendly interactions with the locals which was quite the change from the small sleepy beachtown vibe of Hoi An. But it is a big city with friendly and unfriendly people. On the second day I got on my first organized tour of the Mekong Delta. The bus ride down wasn't too bad and then they put us on a small boat to explore a floating market on one of the Mekong tributaries. It was pretty interesting but I guess you can only see the larger market on the 2 day tour. But basically there are tons of boats each with a bamboo pole and whatever their product hanging from it. After that we had a small stint on a little canoe through some canals and then dragged through a couple of tourist traps; cocunut candy factory and rice paper blah blah blah. It wasn't that bad actually but its a little annoying. Anyway I'm going to try to see the War Museum and the Ho Chi Minh museum today and tomorrow and then back to Thailand for the holidays and onto India.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Asia.

I will hopefully be uploading some more pics today if I can find a decent connnection.

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