Ho Chi Minh City

Getting to Ho Chi Minh City (which I'll call Saigon because it's shorter to type) from Chau Doc is no easy feat. Besides the fact that it was another long bus ride, there is a rather odd river crossing where you have to disembark from your vehicle and get on the ferry on foot. This isn't too bad, so long as your vehicle gets on the same boat as you! Of course ours didn't, which meant we had a bit of a wait, but that was nothing in comparison to the fumes from the motorbikes as you're waiting to get on board. They are lethal!

Once we checked into our hotel in Saigon, my friend Pippa and I decided to do a bit of exploring around the city. I liked Saigon almost immediately. The city seemed much more laid back than Bangkok and it was very navigable, which probably has something to do with the fact that the Vietnamese alphabet is the same as English! We headed to the War Remnants Museum, which was pretty mind blowing, especially for an American. The ground floor of the museum was wallpapered with propaganda posters from all over the world and they spared no expense making sure it's known that the world was against the U.S. invading Vietnam. I looked at posters from Italy to New Zealand to Mongolia and finally found a few small ones from Americans who were anti-war. In my opinion, it wasn't an accurate portrayal of how many Americans didn't want anything to do with the fighting in 'Nam. But their museum, their rules! We could have spent hours looking around - it was insanely interesting and very gruesome. But it was getting late so we headed off to explore the rest of the city before the sun went down. Saigon is a cool mix of traditional culture and high fashion. There is a massive French influence, made evident by the enormous Notre Dame in the city center. It's an easy walking town with plenty of great cafes and parks to relax.

Our first night in Ho Chi Minh City was my last night of holiday, so we went for dinner and a few drinks to celebrate. I have to say that I rarely had a bad meal in all of Asia. I tried to get the most authentic things on the menu and most of the time I chose the region's specialty, so it didn't disappoint. My fellow travelers were not as adventurous with their food, but I think even the fried rice and noodles were pretty bang on. Asians really do food right!