Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

We have now left Cambodia and are in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The coach journey from Sihanoukville took 13 hours and took place on new years day in Cambodia and wasn't without drama. Not 5 minutes after leaving the coach station we were involved in a collision with a scooter. It would appear that the scooter drove straight out of a side road and into the front of our coach. This seems to happen all the time in Cambodia, there is little giving way and where traffic lights do exist, they are rarely obeyed. In fact a lot of the time traffic is bi-directional. Scooters and bikes drive wherever they wish, in what ever direction they wish. This also includes pavements and alleyways....... Anyway back to the bike incident......

We were sitting right at the front of the bus and caught a glimpse out of the corner of our eye of something yellow, then heard a big crash and felt the bus jump slightly. The bus driver checked his mirror, stopped the coach and got out. I, being a rubbernecker also followed and saw the scooter driver picking up his rather crushed bike. He, luckily, wasn't injured.. Our coach was not in such great shape though as water was leaking from underneath somewhere. So we had to wait for about 30 mins while the police did there thing and spoke to witnesses and did there measurements. Another coach then arrived (with a new driver) an took us on our merry way. The rest of the journey involved no more crashes for us, although we did see a flipped over car that was very bashed up laying outside a shop with a crowd of around 30 people surrounding it. The roads were also very busy with loads of people heading to the coast which we had left to celebrate new year. We saw many truck loads packed full of people standing in the back.

We arrived in HCMC and discovered that we had been dropped off right were we wanted to be and quickly found a hotel in a side street.

The following day we went to discover the local area. Its actually not a bad city. We were expecting the city to be really busy and difficult to get around. The roads are busy and are absolutely teeming with scooters. They probably outnumber cars on a ratio of 5 to 1. When crossing the roads you have to find a small gap (small gap means when no cars or bigger are approaching) and begining a walk of faith. The faith part being that like Moses walking and the water making way, you have to hope that the sea of bikes will part and pass by on either side of you as you walk across the road. The trick is to keep walking and not stop if possible. If you get your timing wrong and have to stop for a larger vehicle then you can remain static for some time. Its happened to us!!!!



So we did a little exploring and found a local market (where we took some photos, bought my first sugar cane juice and Eri's first avocado juice and bought some chopsticks to bring home)



We also saw some other sights but curtailed our trip because firstly Eri slipped on a kerb and twisted her ankle, and then the heavens opened for a thunderstorm leaving us soaking wet (but not cold). For the first time ever on our travels there are no rickshaws about so we tried to get a taxi but found that none were empty (at any other time they get in your way by slowing down when you are trying to cross the road). By the time we eventually made it back to the hotel, we were almost dry.

Vietnam has also posed another problem for me..The amount of zero's in the currency. 1 pound sterling is worth roughly 30,000 Vietnamese Dong. This means that you withdraw millions from the ATM. I have give the money to Erika to check before I hand it over. I nearly paid 100,000 Dong for something that cost 10,000 Dong...


We've got a few trips booked so will right about them when we have done them.
See ya.