Short Version:
Lovely Wife's take on Ho Chi Minh City. Please note that some phrasing has been amended from the original. And that we're not almost at Sydney.
Long Version:
Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon
The bus ride into Ho Chi Minh City was slow and hot as the
air con unit on the bus was not up to the task.
We arrived hot and bothered so we were extra pleased that Chris and Le
had found us a fantastic hotel a short five minute walk from the bus stop.
Culture -There are many museums and points for historical
interest in Ho Chi Minh City, but we needed a bit of R&R after our
cycle tour and ended up running out of time... so we elected to go shopping instead
of educating ourselves. I had no issues
with this as I visited the museums last time and still remember the horrific Agent Orange
images, but Mum and Nick were complaining of feeling like Philistines. Nick
ended up going to the Art Museum when Mum and I were off having our claws done.
Shopping - First item on our shopping list were bike boxes. It turns out that District 7 is a very, very
long walk from District 1 through some areas of town that get little or no
tourist action. An interesting walk but
we all sweated bucket loads and were in desperate need of refreshments when we
got there. It took us 3 hours to walk
there, including a stop in a glasses shop so mum could get new frames for a
steal. The ride back in the taxi took ten minutes.
While silk shopping is better/cheaper in Hoi An we did not
fancy the idea of carrying the silk on the bicycle so mum and I hit Ben Thanh
market one morning. Nick was feeling a
little under the weather with a dose of Saigon belly so he decided against coming
along as bag carrier. We walked away
with around 20 meters of fabric, probably paid far too much for it even after
some vigorous haggling. Not to worry, as
we paid at most ¼ the price of what it would have cost in NZ so we were happy,
if a little daunted by the amount of sewing we had committed ourselves to when
we got home.
Way back when cool printed T shirts started to cost more
than $20 Nick became a Savemart / Value Village convert and refused to shop
anywhere else, so I was stoked to learn that T shirts in Vietnam cost from
$4-10 depending on the level of thought that has gone into the print.
There were numerous art knock off
places around where we were stay but unfortunately the quality was a little
poor; we have seen better in Nepal and Cuba.
Better to stick with the DVD knock offs.
It’s a Delicious Fish - Le and Chris took us to a seafood
restaurant in the night market near Ben Thanh that is always packed with
Vietnamese and tourists. Mum and I
decided to be adventourists and try a fried elephant fish. The whole fish came
out on a stand and we had to dissect it and make it into fresh spring rolls –
messy but yum! The BBQ pork was also particularly
delicious; we had to order 2nds and 3rds for the table,
although still not as good as Hanoi’s New Day Restaurant’s pork clay pot.
Fruit, fruit glorious
fruit!! - We love tropical fruit. The best way to ingest these gems is
through a straw!
Clean bikes – Our
last afternoon in Saigon was spent in our hotel’s garage cleaning every last
speak of dirt off our bikes ready for
them to be inspected by Australian and NZ customs – bring it on!
All too soon we were having our last dinner and then last
breakfast together and finally last lunch.
It was sad that our Vietnam leg was over, we would miss our traveling
companions L
On a happier note we still have southern Thailand to look
forward to….although wait hang on a minute we are so behind on the blog writing
that our southern Thailand leg is now over too and we are now looking forward
to seeing my sis and a few friends in Sydney.
x
Nene (and the Puppet)
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