Travel Bug Bites Again

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Made it safely to HCM. Not sure about the guy sitting next to me on the flight. He wanted to share a taxi with me to District 1 but he never emerged from immigration, so I think he forgot to get his visa. I wasn't waiting around for him anyway. Got a taxi voucher to avoid the tripped meter taxis then my driver tried to rip me off and double charge me for airport tax, but I looked at him with crazy eyes and said "No way man, I've already paid'......... Preempting my skillful Jackie Chan moves, he smiled and swiftly gave up trying and headed off to my hotel. It was then that I noticed I was sitting in the front seat of a left hand drive vehicle. Something I had expected, yet had somehow gone unnoticed for a good 10 minutes.

The Hong Thien Loc is a stunning hotel, I almost have room between the 2 single beds to fit my water bottle. I do however have a TV, cyclonic fan and and air conditioner I can't work out. There is a laminated card on the bench that I would have thought was the mini bar list, but all I can understand is that it will cost me $20 USD if I want to souvenir the TV remote and a 'Good Night' will cost $5.

The 3 hr time difference between here an home had me twiddling my thumbs at 6am waiting for breakfast to start. I bypassed the baguettes, weird butter, omlette, dragon fruit, condensed milk, spring rolls and pho and instead opted for a bowl of pork rice porridge, egg rice and stirfry rice vermicelli and spinach. An awesome start to the day.

After lunch I wandered back towards 'Ben Thanh Market' but before I found it 'Thu', a Cyclo man, found me. He had all these wonderful handwritten testimonies and photos of happy customers and twisted my arm into having a a 1hr cyclo ride with him to see some sights. Long story short: Visited the Ho Chi Minh Museum, nearly died in traffic twice, checked out the Notre Dame Cathedral and got absolutely drenched in a downpour on the banks of the Saigon River while watching children net teeny fish.
And then the highlight..... My ever so friendly cyclo driver attempted to extort 8 times the going rate from me. Reminder to self: Never, ever, ever tell anyone it is your first day in their city.
I didn't kick his cheeky ass, I didn't pay him the ridiculous rate, I did however pay him nearly double the going rate and we parted ways both feeling a little deflated.
The evening became a progressive Lonely Planet beer crawl, having one beer at each location. I stumbled upon some funky live jazz tunes which warranted 2 ales then scoffed down some noodles for dinner before retiring to my room.
I plan to get up early in the morning and do some exercise in the park across the road. Heaven knows I'll need it the way the food is tasting!

Note: There are always more photos if you click on the photo tab.

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