Well my fears about Vietnam Airways were totally unfounded,
it was a fantastic flight. The food was absolutely delicious and so much of
it, along with copious amounts of wine hic! The IFE didn’t work but we were
given individual ipads which had a wide choice of films preloaded. The only downside was the beds didn’t go
totally flat so it wasn’t the best night’s sleep and we arrived rather weary
just before 7am.
Our guide Hein, is very nice and smiley and knowledgeable –
the only trouble is we only understand about 1 word in 4, he has a very clipped
way of speaking; rather like when a microphone keeps cutting out. And although there were supposed to be 8 of us on the tour at the moment its only 4 - we're told this is because its nearly Tet (New Year) they don't have a bus big enough for us all, which is odd really as we're currently travelling in a 9 seater minibus. But hopefully we'll meet up with the others when we get to Cambodia on Tuesday.
Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1975 after the
reunification of Viet Nam but is still known as Saigon by most
inhabitants. There are some 9m people
living here and approx. 6m motor scooters!
Seriously, you cannot imagine just how many there are on the road and
they have a complete disregard to road signs and signals and if the road gets
too busy they just drive on the pavement, often without lights. Crossing the road is certainly not for the
faint hearted, you just have to walk slowly but steadily across the road
ignoring the myriad of scooters and cars weaving their way round you. Whole families will also be perched on one
bike, sometimes with tiny children and the dog too. Hopefully tomorrow when we’re feeling a
little braver I’ll be able to get a few photos to show
We did a whistle stop tour of the City, stopping at the
Central Post Office, a rather grand building designed by Gustav Eiffel
The Reunification Palace which is unchanged from 1973 houses
some great communication equipment from that decade.
And finally the War Museum which we didn’t go round for two
reasons a) Ian was nearly falling asleep and b) I didn’t wish to view graphic
examples of man’s inhumanity to man.
Oh, and I nearly forgot, its 31 degC here which is a huge change from yesterday's 1 degC at Gatwick.