Arrival in HCMC

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First couple of days in Vietnam

Where do I start – we are in a world so far removed from our comfort zone – I cannot believe how much I need to rely on Lill to keep me from turning around and going home!!

We arrive in HCMC at about lunch time Saturday – walking through the nearly deserted terminal we are met before we get to the gates by a guy with our name on a placard and he proceeds to take our passports. 5 minutes later returns with a 3 month multiple stay visa for US$90 each (which we arranged through Mr Nguyen) and he directs us to passport control and disappears - never to be seen again – so James Bond!! We get through passport control and customs and we are the last to go through it seems, so they just want to hurry us through, so like a flash we are done and lo and behold another guy is here waiting for us with our name on another placard and we are bundled into a taxi and taken to our hotel.

Tip: when dying of thirst at Tan Son Ngat airport and you are approached by someone with icy cold water at $1 or 20,000 Dong, do not take ,as the water can be less than hygienic – sucker Sue accepted 2.

Our Hotel right in the middle of District one is cute – we were upgraded from Superior to Deluxe (or the other way round) and so we feel like we are in heaven as there is a fridge, wardrobe and a much bigger bathroom than we had in Singapore, so we can spread out.

Just relaxing and finding our way around and we get a call and it is our tour organizer inviting us out to the local noodle bar for dinner. UNBELIEVABLE service. Food very tasty but as we were unsure what we were exactly eating (as Mr Nguyen ordered) we ate very little (also - too hot and humid to be hungry).

Day 2 we woke and Lill is still not feeling that well. We went down for breakfast – very nice too; a person stands there and cooks your eggs to order. After b’fst we attended the only English speaking Catholic service at the Notre DamE Cathedral about 15 mins away by taxi – very impressive and really packed.

Tip: When you leave the cathedral there are local hawkers selling you things like postcards etc – YOU WILL GET CHEAPER elsewhere. – Yep - you guessed it - Annie was sucked in again!!! (boy I can’t wait for Lill to feel better so she can do some of these way-dumb things).

We went back to hotel and Lill still unwell so Annie ventured to the local market and bought a couple of gold charms – surely she cannot be ripped off again – time will tell.

Afterwards we went out again to the noodle bar we went to last night and as we this time ordered we were able to eat a lot more as we had some idea of the contents.

Following this we were met by a cyclo driver that Annie had met earlier in the day and he wanted us to go on a tour which we agreed to (we thought we agreed 250,000 dong each) but in the confusion (yes Annie was there again!!!) it turned out to be the grand tour of all tours and we ended up having to pay 1,500,000 each ($75).

Tip – when negotiating with these vendors make sure you take your little writing pad with you and get them to write down the quote. Lill adds that we had discussed prior to leaving, that we would get ripped off a few times when in Vietnam, as the people are trying to scrape a living with a lot of difficulty, and they see us as walking buckets of $$$. We decided to be as careful as possible and then to have a sense of humour about it, otherwise it all gets too serious.

We are now waiting for 6pm to come as we have booked a 3 hour pamper pack in house – hopefully we will sleep well tonight.

We are very blessed in our country – away from Australia for 2 weeks and we are very much aware that we are from the lucky country, and in global terms fabulously wealthy. Also, that our systems may not be perfect (like life) but they are pretty damn good. Especially in terms of high safety, reasonably fair to locals and foreigners, low corruption, welfare available.

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Photos

Saigon Traffic
Take your life in your hands...