Saigon - 10 million people, 6 million motorbikes!

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Kaylene and I have had an amazing start to our trip round Vietnam - the first day, we joined a morning city tour of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and saw a few of the sights including a temple and huge wholesale market... as well as learnt how to cross the road!?

Basically just step onto a busy road, keep walking and the motorbikes go around you .. well that's the theory anyway! On several occasions, a local has taken us by the hand to help us cross!! This city would suffer from terrible gridlock if they had more cars, but with millions of scooters they weave in and out of each other. Major intersections are quite exciting to watch!

And then, as it was Kaylene's birthday and a great excuse to treat ourselves, we had an afternoon and evening that was 5 star all the way.

We began with a 2 hour facial and massage each for the princely sum of $35, and then went out for 'sundowners' ... cocktails at sunset first at the rooftop bar of the Rex Hotel (an open terrace on the 6th floor so closer to the action), followed by Happy Hour at the Sheraton Saigon on the 23rd floor rooftop bar ... the views were incredible. It really made us realise how massive this city is; with 10 million people it's the largest city in Vietnam.

After another couple of cocktails (!), we made our way to Srhi, a fabulous rooftop restaurant recommended by the concierge at our hotel.

Really classy and great food and service. I think the bill was about $50 each for a 3 course meal at what must be one of the top restaurants in Saigon ...given the prices we've been paying for food since (like last night's dinner for around $8), this was really top of the line. Our wine was complimentary as well as a free cake for dessert because it was Kaylene's birthday...I told her she can have a birthday next week as well ....

The next morning we set off on a 2 day tour of the Mekong Delta ... we cycled through local villages and rice fields, visited a local school, tasted snake wine (complete with fermenting cobras in the bottle... we made sure our guide drank it first!!), saw a flock of about 2000 ducklings, and took a little sampan ride up canals ... the Mekong Delta apparently has 50000km of waterways.

I'm presently back at the hotel after visiting the floating markets by boat very early this morning ...we had a pre-dawn start and really saw how many of the locals begin their days.

Its amazing how much we've packed into 2 1/2 days so far ... it's impossible to write a short blog post and cover it all. So until next time ....love Alison.

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Photos

So Many Scooters...
Waiting for a break in the traffic to cross was a challenge. There are traffic lights, but they seem to ignore them most of the time. Once we had to ask for help from a local man as we were stranded on one side of a busy road for about 10 minutes ... we tipped him 50 cents for getting us safely across!

Saigon by Night
From up high, you can really see how the city lights stretch for miles in every direction.

Local Market in Mekong Delta
Many of the ladies wore the traditional conical hats. Ducks were the most 'tame' of the animals we saw. Watching a woman skinning rats was rather unusual!

5 Star Birthday!
Enjoying dinner at fabulous rooftop restaurant - the staff were so attentive ... you only had to glance around for someone to come up.

Cycling
The cycling through the villages and rice fields for about an hour was a definite highlight ... great scenery and wonderful to observe local life at bicycle pace.

Floating Markets
Buying and selling produce by boat ... the seller boats advertise their wares by stringing a pineapple, bag of potatos or other vegetable item on the top of a flagpole so prospective customers can see what's on offer.