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Published: November 10th 2006
After a crazy 11 hour journey to cross the border (which was supposed to take 6), vehicles pushing and shoving to cross the river, people packed into vans, onto the roof and everwhere - manic!
Made it to Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon) to meet my best friend Alex who has flown out to travel Vietnam with me - been so great to have chats and giggles again and the best thing - she brought me cheese, Guylian chocolates and choc digestives from mum at home and English magazines!! What a treat!
This city is MANIC. Motorcyles motorcyles motorcyles absolutely EVERYWHERE, its crazy noisy and polluted - crossing the road is terrifying! Have got the hang of it now - you just have to walk slowly out into the wall of traffic and they will gradually dodge you...death trap, but it's the only way!
Is a cool city though, although not many sights to see it is always buzzing with activity and sooo many places to EAT! Went to the Reunification Palace, saw the dirty Saigon river and wandered the many many shops. The shopping here is great here - spent a happy afternoon looking at beautiful silk
dresses and bags.
Also did our obligatory historical bit and went to visit the Cu Chi tunnels - the huge network of tunnels the Viet Cong built during the war against the Americans, so we had our big history lesson and were forced to squeeze through TINY dusty tunnels on our hands and knees - joy! On the way also visited factories where the disabled local people make all the handicrafts such as vases and lacquered pictures.
Has been so fun being with Alex, and have been eating lots of Vietnamese food (including the famous 'Pho Bo' noodles - literally eaten for every meal here) and exploring the local markets, but the hectic pace of the city is getting a bit much and can't wait for some chill out time!
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