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

Well, I had a pretty rough night going at both ends!! We consulted our symptoms sheet from the Travel Doctor and decided some azithromycin could be in order. My dear husband brought three slices of white toast back from the dining room for me … and that’s all I ate all day. I managed only half a slice with a scrape of Vegemite for breakfast. For lunch and dinner I was able to get a whole slice into me washed down with lemon and ginger tea. Thank goodness I brought the Vegemite, my ultimate comfort food when recovering from feeling dodgy in the tummy. I stayed in bed all day just about comatose! Steps for the day: 1,337 (0.89km) I’m actually surprised that I moved that much! Meanwhile, Bernie, Cathy and Steve visited the Ben Thanh ... read more

We decided to get an earlier start today so that, hopefully, it wouldn’t be quite so hot and humid as we walked to our first sightseeing stop?? We hit the dining room for breakfast about 7.45am and we were out of the front door of the hotel before 9.00am. We were exploring on foot again today. Yesterday we saw the Hop On Hop Off bus so we looked into that on the internet yesterday afternoon. Hmmn, it turns out that it’s a bit of a misnomer because you can’t actually hop on and off the bus! You board the bus at the Opera House, you complete a 45 minute loop of the city’s main points of interest and then you hop off the when you return to the Opera House. There was also a long list ... read more

Well we got away on time from Phnom Penh 9.45am. for six and a half bus ride giving us an arrival time of 4.15pm Ho Chi Minh City, ended up being close to 5pm. Overall it was a great bus trip, Giant Ibis Bus company, they were brilliant. We had two drivers and a jockey....the jockey informed us and rounded us up when needed for a couple of toilet stops and also took great care of us at the border crossing, taking all our passports and visas to immigration and getting them all stamped whilst we had coffee and some had a bite to eat....all went very smoothly. Lovely airconditioned bus with free water and even a breaky croissant to start off the trip. Were very lucky the bus terminal in Ho Chi Minh was quite ... read more

Our hotel room is on the 20th floor with a view over the river, but that wasn’t high enough to dilute the constant sound of horns below all through the night. In the morning, it looked very overcast outside, but it wasn’t until we got to nearer the ground that we saw just how heavily it was raining. We still went out, armed with our raincoats, but the rain stopped almost immediately as we left the hotel. Our first stop was the Ben Thanh Market and to say that that was full-on would be putting in mildly. From the moment we walked in, “You want shoes?” “You want bags?” “You want scarves?” “You want watches?” “You want purses?” “You want t-shirts?” “I show you Gucci.” “I show you Nike.” “I show you Calvin Klein.” “Why you ... read more

It has been an unusual experience to be so far away from NZ while all the grief, anguish and outpouring of goodwill for the victims and wider affected community of the mosque massacres has been going on. There has, as far as I can tell, been little or no coverage here in recent days on TV news stations and no Vietnamese we have spoken to have brought it up. The news feeds on line are keeping us engaged and aware and I can say that it is rather eye watering at times to read the international acclaim for our PM. Certainly, for this, the right person in the right place at the right time irrespective of what anyone thinks of her Government's performance in other areas. Here, Lyn's work goes on apace. More school visits, agent ... read more