Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

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48 hours in HCMC (or, as everyone apart from the city officials calls it, Saigon) turned ourtto be a mental 48 hours – making friends, drinking, clubbing, touring the city by motorbike…AND we managed to fit in a visit to the War Remnants museum (never say I don’t do anything cultural)!

The bus ride from Rach Gia was memorable in itself. They played a dvd of some kind of bizarre Vietnamese variety show, featuring not only the very latest (I can only assume) in Vietnamese pop, but also in mouth organ players who do things like eat bananas whilst playing their instrument. Amazing stuff. The bus also came with neck pillows – as I said to Lizzie, I felt like I was in a spa (if a spa involves sitting down for 7 hours watching harmonica players eat fruit).

We had booked into the CAM hotel, a guesthouse run by our friend Marguerite’s uncle Eugene and his Vietnamese girlfriend Chi. It was the best thing we could have done – we were greeted with shouts of “You must be Marguerite’s friends!” and swiftly handed cocktails (a Eugene special!). Such a lovely couple, not only did they let us stay at the hotel at a discounted price, they wouldn’t let us pay for any food at Chi’s cafe, and on opur 2nd night they took us out for dinner and clubbing. Such amazing food – we went to a Vietnamese BBQ place (can’t remember what it was called, but it was in the same building as Fanny (tee hee) and Temple Club (where Brad and Ang came when they came to Cambodia one time!). Anyway, you ordered the food then grilled it yourself on a little BBQ that was on your table. Thank God we had Chi with us who is an amazing chef – I could have prob cooked the chicken and goat OK, but when the shrimp arrived still wiggling I did feel a bit bad watching them be grilled to death (tasty though, mmm!)

After dinner we went to Apocalypse Now, one of the few late night bars/clubs in Saigon. At the club we met some Canadian pilots based out in Vietnam. Paul and Captain John Walker (he gave us his business card which was hilarious - for all your aviation needs) were lovely and we ended up out til 4am drinking with them around Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker district. The next day they took us out on their motorbikes around the city – it was great to be shown around by people who know the place but an absolutely terrifying experience! You can not truly appreciate your life until you have almost lost it to the traffic of Saigon!

We were absolutely knackered but had to stay awake to catch the 11pm night train from Saigon to Hoi An – a 15 hour journey which was a surprisingly pain free experience! I’d never been on a sleeper train before but it was great, much more comfortable than flying (we splashed out for a 1st class air con berth each – 28 quid, bargain) and we slept through until about 6am.

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