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Published: April 11th 2010
March 18th - 21st Arriving in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City as it is called now we were agog at how western it all is. Driving through the sprawling metropolis we saw department stores, ‘proper’ shops, car showrooms and restaurants that wouldn’t look out of place in London. Not to mention traffic lights and roundabouts! It even has a Vietnamese version of Starbucks, Highlands Coffee, which serves great coffee but at very un-Asian prices.
Crossing the road is a bit of a mission in Saigon. I have never seen so many motorbikes in one place as there are on the streets here. It is completely bonkers. They are everywhere. Some carry just one passenger while others are piled high with families and their shopping. Traffic doesn’t stop for pedestrians and to cross the road you need nerves of steel to ignore every instinct and just step off the pavement into the throng. Amazingly it works and it is possible to cross the countless lanes of bikes and get safely to the other side. But don’t think that once you are on the pavement you can drop your guard because the slanted curbs mean to beat the traffic many
bikes mount the pavement so you totally have to have your wits about you when getting around Saigon. It all adds to the excitement of being in a new city and it certainly woke us up after the eight hour bus journey from Phnom Penh.
We stayed at a lovely family-run guesthouse, Ngoc Thao, and had to walk through the lounge to get to our room and ate breakfast at the family table each morning. There were children playing around our feet and loads of photos of happy occasions. It's great fun staying in family guesthouses because it gives us chance to interact with the locals and without fail every family we have come across has been more than helpful and very friendly.
We met up with Simon’s sister Emma in Saigon as she had just finished a tour around Cambodia with Explore. It was exciting to see a familiar face after so long away and we enjoyed catching up over a few drinks. We also got very sweaty walking through the labyrinth of an indoor market and me and Emma went for a mani/pedi in a strange little room above a shop. It was only $7 for
a mani/pedi and when my therapist asked if I wanted some nail art on my little fingers I thought ‘why not?’. So there I was with hot pink nails with sparkly flowers on the two little fingers when I was asked if I wanted any of the others doing. I was like, ‘do them all’ then broke out in a cold sweat when I looked at the price list and saw that nail art was $3 a nail!! That would make this mani/pedi dearer than our room and food budget for a day. After the mani/pedi we were subjected to a very rough massage (no doubt because I was paying their rent for the month) before heading down to the shop to pay. For some reason I was only charged $10 which I was very pleased about as I wasn’t looking forward to telling Simon I had spent all our money. The mani/pedi was completely worth it though despite the dubious location because it was the longest lasting varnish I have ever had and was still looking perfect 10 days later. One of the things I will miss about South East Asia is the cheap beauty treatments. I could get
my hair blow dried every day, a massage and a mani/pedi for the cost of a blow dry at home. Best not get used to these luxuries though.
Emma’s boyfriend Steve flew over to meet us in Saigon and we all headed out of the city on an eight-hour train ride to Nha Trang on the coast. Yes, yet even more beach time for us!
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