Crazy Saigon

　
We didnt leave Otres beach the day we were supposed to as Lee was arriving, so we stayed a couple of extra days.

During those two days there were several of the biggest thunderstorms I have ever seen. The boys obviously wanted to play in it so here is a video of just that as well as some of the storm that rumbled on for at least two days.

Anyway obviously it was still very stormy when we came to leave and we had a truly terrifying (and very wet!) trip from Otres to Sihanoukville in a tuk tuk with all our luggage. Our driver on closer inspection seemed to be pretty much blind and we nearly hit a very big tree in the road as well as several large palm tree branches that were down. Honestly, we sighed a the biggest sigh of relief when we reached the booking office in Sihanoukville.

The bus was due to pick us up at 8pm, and at 8pm there it was. A lovely cosy sleeper bus, we settled in and were both soon asleep.

At 12.30am we arrived in Phnom Penh where they woke us all up, made us get off the bus with all our bags. We then had to go and change tickets (this is a favourite thing for them to do in the middle of the night, for no reason what so ever they seem unable to give you a ticket for the whole trip!). And then we got on another bus, a rubbish normal seated bus, with seats that did not recline at all. I was not amused, why do that, it was meant to be a sleeper bus all the way there, but no 8pm-12.30am, thats enough sleep! So slightly grouchy and very tired at about 7am, 20 minutes from the border the bus burst a tyre. Off we all got and waited on quite a busy road for about 45 minutes whilst they changed the tyre (for another one that was balder than the one that had burst!)

So far so fun, we then got taken 10 minutes up the road for a breakfast stop and then onto the border. Nearly every road approaching a border we have been too is lined with casinos because gambling is officially banned in China & Vietnam. They share land borders with Laos & Cambodia so they must just pop over the border to get their fix!

We checked out of Cambodia on their little fingerprint machine, and then back on the bus for the very short drive to the Vietnamese checkpoint. Where we then all got chucked off the bus again this time with all our bags to go through security etc, luckily as we had visas is was pretty quick. This was outside the Vietnamese checkpoint.

Then all back on the bus for the 3 hour drive to Saigon. We arrived in Saigon at about 1pm, having told that we would be dropped in the backpacker district near our hotel. Oh no, of course not we were dropped %$£& knows where, nowhere near we needed to be on a street lined with taxis, all metered. We should have known better but we were tired and hungry, so 10 minutes and £30 later we were dropped at the end of an alleyway, where the taxi driver said the hotel was.

He was telling the truth at least, so we checked in, showered and went out for food. Saigon is an assault on all of the senses, it is really hot, smelly, busy and noisy. We basically wandered aimlessly most of the afternoon

Before heading out for dinner we decided to have a massage, they are really cheap in Saigon. Plus we were aching from the bus and had just booked another overnight bus journey for the following night! So off we went, there are loads of girls giving out flyers and they all looked quite decent, and did a whole range of beauty treatments, not just massage. Anyway (I am sure some of you know whats coming), we get taken upstairs into a lovely room, air conditioned, lovely music playing and low lighting. We had opted for the 45 minutes back, neck and shoulder option, but about 10 minutes in the curtain between my and Craigs beds was closed. Obviously I did not know at the time but Craig later told me that she had offered him extra services to be received then and there, with me on the other side of the curtain. She was stroking his leg and when he said "no, my wife is here", she said "its ok come back later". She then said "I am a little bit scared of your wife" (obviously not quite enough!), to which Craig loyally responded "yes, you should be". At that point the curtain was pulled back and when i looked over she gave me a massive grin! Anyway as i dont know if Mollie & Jack read this I am not going into any more detail than that. Suffice to say I thought I was a woman of the world and it takes a lot to shock me, but i was shocked. What made me even more shocked was that obviously this tactic is sometime succesful as they wouldnt try it otherwise, it makes you wonder about people though! There were a lot of places that were obviously brothels along the main street, but this one I thought was particularly harsh (the smaller sign on the left reads "ugly but good").

In the evening we took a walk to the Ben Thanh night market, which is open air

The food was really good, all Vietnamese street food, but with the menu translated into English so you know what you are ordering. Craig had beef noodles and i had pork ribs with fried glutinous rice, it was lovely and very cheap. We then headed back to the hotel to crash.

The following day we had decided to do a walking tour of Saigon as featured in the trusty Lonely Planet. It took you to all the major sites in 4-5 hours, as we had decided that 2 days in the city was enough we had a night bus booked for that night to take us to Rach Gia and then onto Phu Quoc.

So the tour took us through the park and onto Ben Thanh market, which is totally different during the day, for a start it is undercover and sweltering hot. The market sellers are non-stop on your case and the rows are so small its difficult to move around. We have been to quite a few markets now and this was definitely the most stressful one. Here is a little video of our stroll through (be aware that they were not quite so much on our case once the camera was out!)

Next stop on the tour was a trip to the roundabout which has a statue of Tran Nguyen Han, a trusted general of 15th Century leader Le Loi. On a pillar at its base is the small white bust of a 15 year old girl called Quach Thi Trang who was killed near here in antigovernment protests in 1963

From the market the tour took us to the fine arts museum which used to be a private home and had the honour of being the first building in Saigon to have an elevator.

From here you can also see the Bitexco Financial Tower which looks a little out of place.

After this the tour took a bit of a turn for the boring, so we decided to improvise. The main things to see in Saigon are the Reunification Palace and the Notre Dame Cathedral, so we headed in the opposite direction to the tour.

First we came to the Reunification Palace, which I thought was quite an ugly building, but very historically significant. It was designed by architect Ngo Viet Thu and was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam war. It was the site of the end of the Vietnam War during the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, when a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through its gates. You had to pay to go in and neither of us were that concerned so, here it is (from outside the gate).....

And last but not least was the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was a strange city in this very tropical city. Following the French conquest of and Saigon, the Roman Catholic Church established a community and religious services for French colonialists. After 3 or 4 different churches eventually after three years the Cathedral was completed, all with materials sourced in France. Interesting fact (or I thought so anyway!) - During October 2005, the statue was reported to have shed tears, attracting thousands of people and forcing authorities to stop traffic around the Cathedral. The top clergy of the Catholic Church in Vietnam confirmed that the statue did not shed tears, which failed to disuade the crowd flocking to the statue days after the incident.

Saigon was an odd city because there were areas that were spotlessly clean and there were Gucci and Armani shops and then just around the corner would be the smelliest fish market. There are lots of open spaces, and people seem to use these spaces to socialise at all times of the day and nights. We saw these kids playing with a kind of shuttlecock contraption, which seems very popular in all the countries we have been to. We have bought one and it is nowhere near as easy as they make it look!

The layout of the city is that every available space is used, which results in lots of very dodgy looking alleyways, which actually are very interesting and where you meet the best characters. Like the group of 5 or 6 80 odd year old women selling really cheap alchohol out of plastic crates. Or the really inventive shoe shine guy, who very quickly hid his disspointment at our choice of footwear (flipflops), and offered to make them better! The other real characters are the cyclo guys, most of who are old guys that fought for the Vietnamese army. Most of them are in their 80's and spend the whole day peddling podgy western tourists round the city in 35+ degrees (FYI we walked the whole way!).

Just an example of the a couple of the glitzy new buildings in Saigon, very bling

We made back to our hotel just in time for a shower and grab our bags to meet our transfer in reception to take us to the bus station. Then onto Phu Quoc, we have heard one of the most beautiful islands in Vietnam.

So till then..........