Ho Chi Minh

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HCM is definitely the craziest city I've ever been to. It's roads are more chaotic than Hanoi's and it's street vendors are more persistant than Bangkok's ping pong salesmen! In one breath they real off this " you want travel book?" (to which you politely say no) "you want sunglasses?" (again no) " you want cannabis, opium, heroin?" (yes, another no). What always made me laugh was who told the salesman 'if the customer says no to cannabis, offer them stronger drugs because that's what they're after!'

I left HCM after 1 day and did a 2 days tour of the Mekong Delta, which was a pretty cool trip. I saw genuine floating markets where the vendors advertise their produce by tying it to a giant pole and sticking that up in the air for all to see. When the stock of a particular item runs out it's removed from the pole - genius! I saw huge coconut plantations that grew water coconuts and I visited a coconut candy factory that also had beehives and cobras, just to spice things up. The stupid lady who worked there thought we'd enjoy her opening the bee hive, removing a slat and walking around with it teeming with pissed off bees! Our table soon became a popular bee hangout (that might have had something to do with the honey tea we'd just been given!) so we moved to the nearby hammocks only to realise there were 6 hives behind us. As if that wasn't scary enough for someone who might be allergic to bees, a 7 year-old boy was walking around with a 5 foot python and placing it around the neck's of eager tourists - i wasn't one of them!

Well that's about it for HCM....apart from the fact I drank snake wine, which is a weak whiskey that has a whole snake in the bottle. And I ate snake, which unsurprisingly tastes like chicken.

Over and out.
ps. I made this page with a killer hangover after partying till 6am and I've just realised the picks from the monk onwards are from Thailand.

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Photos

Thief!
This little lady hid my sunglasses and made me buy new ones before she let me in on her little gag!

A bit of culture
This thing is made out of plates and is well over 50 meters long!! Brilliant

6 floors up
This time my room didn't even have a window!

Patriotic dog
Yellow is the kings colour so loads of ppl where yellow t-shirts to show their respect.

Comments

[Sarah]

remember us!?
haha hey... and what about the super cool aussies you spent your mekong delta trip with?! So disappointed charlie. I'm doing a scrapbook of my vietnam trip and stumbled across your coaster you wrote your travelblog on... WOOP! Cool.. you're having an awesome time... hope it only gets better!! Sarah

[Charlie Boy]

Hiya!
Haha of course I remember you. I still have the coasters too. I'm in southern Thailand now just chillin out on beaches and burning my stupid english skin! I'll be in Oz in about 3 weeks time. Look forward to seeing you and the others again! Charlie