Back in Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City

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Sarah: The evening after our last day at The Angkor Temples was a very pleasant one. I took postcards and Nick took 'The Damned United' to a local cocktail bar, Miss Wong's, that we had spied previously. They had the usual extensive variety of cocktails, but what caught our eyes were the three 'infusions' of G & T; one of my favourites and a drink that while travelling Nick has weened himself on to! Now, being a creature of habit, normally I'd suggest not messing with something that ain't broke. However, we happily sampled each 'infusion' (elderflower, ginger or camomile) between us and returning to our favourite (elderflower) to finish. Postcards were written and books were read. Whilst all this was going on, the evening downpour had started. This lead us to the decision to grab some food in 'Miss Wong's' rather than brave the soggy streets and tuk tuk drivers. We had some very delicious dumplings and a bowl of fried rice, all washed down with a couple of pints (the G & T's were a little too strong to become a session drink!).

The next day was our last day in Siem Reap. It was mostly a day of R & R, with a bit of planning and booking the days ahead thrown in. Having found some nice places during our first few days we returned to them throughout the day rather than risking something new. First stop was the New Leaf Cafe for a share and care lunch of spicy calamari, morning glory, rice and a refreshing salad. It was all finished off with some more of the delicious Cambodian iced coffee (which really gives you a kick up the rear when you're flagging in the heat). Miss Wong got another visit in the evening and more elderflower G & Ts were ordered! For a little pre-dinner snack, we picked up some street meat; hunks of crispy pork chopped in to bitesized pieces and nibbled by the river... Naughty but nice. Dinner was not much to write home about, Nick got a Khmer curry, I've racked my brains and can't remember what I had...so it really can't have been anything special (or the gins were a bit stronger that day).

Monday involved a flight to Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon in old terms. We'd been before in 2011 but were looking forward to returning to Vietnam which we both fell in love with all those years ago. The one hour flight made a welcome change from the slightly longer buses of recent times and we arrived mid-afternoon by taxi in the backpacker end of town. Our hostel was located down one of the many little alley ways and so we were picked up on foot by one of the staff from their travel agency on the main road so we didn't get lost. We passed lots of restaurants, guesthouses, dogs, chickens and family homes through the alleys but eventually made it to our hostel, which feels a bit like the centre of the maze. Due to the tax on housing being charged in Vietnam based on the width of your property rather than the overall size, many places are tall and skinny. Our hostel was no exception and we were shown up several flights of stairs to our room. Bags duly dumped, it was out to explore!

We started by getting our road-crossing legs on. Vietnam definitely has the most crazy traffic of anywhere we've been so far on our trip and ever before. We strode out in to the streams of scooters that flow around you like water, so long as you keep walking slow and steady. It's against all natural instincts but if you don't 'just do it' you'd not go much further than round the block! We began our exploration with a wander through the Ben Thanh Market. It's full of Ralph Lauren shirts, Gucci watches and the like, all 100% genuine and at absolutely bargain prices! Hmm... Anyway, not in the market for designer goods we picked up some delicious dried fruit to get us through the afternoon and plodded on to Notre Dame Cathedral. Having been to Notre Dame, Paris, I think it has a way to go to live up to it's French namesake but nonetheless, it makes a nice change to see some European style architecture. (Sound the Philistine Klaxon, I don't really know much about architecture and it was slightly embarrassing to be asked by some Vietnamese schoolchildren as part of their school trip why we thought the building was interesting...'I like the windows' was the best I could muster...). Our wanderings took us past the Opera House (another nice, fancy-looking building) and back to backpacker town. We got in some Green Saigon beers (my old favourite from 4 years ago) and also found a pool table. It wasn't long before the music got turned up too loud for people like us in their 30s at that time of night and young Vietnamese buzzed around the pool table eager for a turn. After a few quieter drinks on a balcony further down the road which was great for people watching our tummies were ready for some grub.

Our vantage point had been perfect for sussing out where was popular and where was not and we followed the locals to a little street side BBQ. After choosing the meat that we wanted grilling from a large stall up we pulled up a mini stool at a mini table. A portion of rice and some deliciously spicy green sauce was brought out, followed shortly after by grilled sausage, pork and veg skewers, chicken and veg skewers and finally octopus tentacles with lovely crispy suckers - yummo! A couple more Green Saigon beers rounded off the evening nicely before going home to bed.&& Having seen most of the sights of HCMC during our previous trip we didn't feel any strong urges to redo them and so a day of more pottering was in order for Tuesday. Potter we did, booking a night bus to Da Lat for the next day and picking up a bowl of pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and a mango salad for lunch. After lunch we headed in the direction of the river and found ourselves at the bottom of the Sky Bar. Rather than pay a few quid to go up to the observatory deck and come back down we opted to pay a few quid for a beer at the bar on the 52nd floor. The view was spectacular and gave us a good sense of the scale of HCMC (enormous!). We also got to see some pretty impressive rooftop pools and helipads AND they threw in some peanuts with their inflated beer prices (compared to the 30p local average anyway!). Everyone's a winner.

After descending back down to the craziness of street level we headed back to our general area and went for another BBQ dinner. Our choices weren't quite as good as the previous evening but it was still a decent feed. Following dinner we found a bar that had some live music. It started with a Filipino chap singing some indie songs with his guitar. He was very good on his own but was soon joined by an equally good French-American female singer. They were very kind in accepting us singing along and repeated requests for the Stone Roses and Oasis. They did have us giggling a bit too as during most songs the chap suddenly broke in to death metal singing style over the top of his partner e.g. during KT Tunstall and Alanis Morrissette songs?? During their set there was also a power cut which sent most of the bars and restaurants in to darkness. They carried on playing despite the heat that soon took over once the fans were off! There were plenty of other sights to be seen from our little table with a street view such as young street performers swallowing fire and/or live snakes! It was a great way to spend our last proper night in HCMC, a place that we've both liked much more second time around.

As we had a very late night bus the following night we bagged ourselves a late checkout to get as much quality sleep as possible. We were chastised by the hostel owner ("you naughty, you hangover!") but offered free bottled water, an extra hour in bed and promise of a free shower before we got on our night bus that evening. She instantly shot up to the top of the hostel owner charts. We are now sat in the hostel having taken said shower and killing the last hour before the night bus to Da Lat. our day has mostly consisted of a wandering the streets whilst killing time at various coffee shops and cafes. We picked up a tasty ol' curry for dinner and hopefully the curry coma will set in by the time hit the road. Next stop...Da Lat!

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