HO CHI MINH

THURSDAY 19th

5am call for a 5.50am leave to Da Nang Airport for our 8am flight to Ho Chi Minh. Here we were met by another guide, Chao (known to everyone as Tiger Lady). As our rooms would not be available until after 2pm we began a tour of the city starting with another Temple dedicated to seafarers.

Next into the heart of the city along with thousands of scooters and the odd car. We stopped by Notre Dame

Cathedral, a rather ordinary looking church by English standards but a sight all tourists must see say the guide books! The most interesting part was the wedding shoots taking place. We were not allowed inside the Cathedral so moved across the road to visit a large building now used as the Post Office.

It was very hot in Saigon, the old name that the local people would rather have us use, and so we were back in the bus and off for lunch. A very nice place but service was slow for some and when it came to paying it was chaotic. We only received a bill for drinks and despite asking several times and finally having a word with Chao she just shrugged her shoulders and said we had to go as nearly everyone else was back on the bus. The presentation of food was very different. One of us ordered spring roll in pineapple which it was - a t light illuminated hollowed out pineapple with small spring rolls on skewers stuck into the pineapple. Avril, sat next to us, had beef in coconut. Yes, the coconut was the container and the beef in a sauce was inside it. It stood on a plate with a pink fire burning to keep it warm. Amazing. Complaints from Trish about when would she get her prawn dish? Shrieks as this giant of a beast arrived on a bed of lettuce the size of a small lobster!

Final stop was the market which was hot and in one part very smelly from the durian fruit being prepared into small portions and covered in cling film. Kate accompanied Keith and I as her husband Jack was no shopper! We bargained for a snake skin belt and a kilo of blackpeppercorns and after paying daft prices the stall holders walked off in a huff. We did not do so well for Kate and failed to reach an agreement for a set of coasters. The traffic was much worse than in Hanoi and so our journey back to the hotel was very slow but it gave us change to people watch.

Checking in we were allocated room 701 but had trouble getting to our floor as no-one had told us we had to insert our room card in the slot before pressing the floor button. No point unpacking as we were leaving in the morning so we had a walk around the immediate area before returning to the hotel for a fairly light dinner. Up in our room Keith discovered the razor socket didn't work so it took 2 electrians to fix it. Then the safe refused to open so it was another job for one of them.