Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) - 28th Jan

This morning we had an early start for our flight to Ho Chi Minh with the airport an hours drive away in Da Nang. Stupidly someone (me) got the flight time wrong and told everyone the flight was at 9.10am ...it was actually 9.40am so we had an extra 30 minutes to wait at the airport. Hey better to be early than late.

Instructions from the airport transfer bus

The flight took 1hr10mins. We landed, collected our bags and met our new guide 'Neer' who was a massive Chelsea fan and had even called his daughter Chelsea in support of his beloved club. We landed to brilliant sunshine and bright blue skies which made a really pleasing change.

We were pretty hungry by the time we boarded the mini bus and so first stop was lunch. We asked Neer for a local place to eat and he came up with the goods as we went to a great noodle cafe called Pho 2000.

Heading home for the weekend

Interflora

After lunch we headed to the War Remnants Museum dedicated to the Vietnam War. It included some quite graphical pictures depicting the brutality of war with pictures of villages on fire, Vietnamese being dragged behind American tanks, civilians running from their homes and pictures of people with deformities attributed to the American’s spraying of the herbicide Agent Orange. Outside there was a collection of American army tanks, planes and a Chinook.

Very dramatic imagery

After the museum we were taken on a guided walk past Notre Dame Cathedral. This was built between 1877 and 1883 by the French when they colonised Vietnam – you can see from the photo the similarity with Paris's very own Notre Dame.

Next to the cathedral was the French-style post office – the largest in Vietnam. Inside it had different phone booths which people could use to call through to specific countries with the name of the country listed on the door of the booth. The post office was architecturally impressive with a big glass dome and a large portrait of Ho Chi Minh.

Inside the Post Office

We were next taken to the Opera House and Ho Chi Minh square with a large statute of the man himself before heading to our hotel.

Ho Chi Minh Square

Our room in the hotel was a bit grotty and the door to the balcony didn't shut properly so we asked to be moved and were swapped from the 2^nd to the 10^th floor. We arranged to meet Carolyn and Bonnie for dinner at 6pm so had a bit of a rest before getting ready to go out.

Neer had given us a map with some recommended restaruants and we decided to head to the Barbeque Garden. All the tables had a gas barbecue in the middle and the idea was that you ordered and cooked your own food. Sadly we all got a bit muddled with what to order and whilst it was nicely marinated we didn't order enough to fill us up so after dinner we went to Fanny's ice-cream parlour for some really great ice cream.

On the way back to the hotel we spent ages just people watching. It was 10pm but the road outside our hotel was packed with people on bikes. It was amazing watching them all. For most people the motorbike is the main means of transport and we saw families of 4 sitting on the one bike, high chairs placed in front of the drivers and mothers carrying new born babies in a blanket on the back of the bikes. We were probably there for 10 mins just watching people.

Back in the hotel Carolyn and Bonnie headed to bed but we decided to have a final evening beer at the bar on the top of the hotel. It was nice sitting out, having a drink and looking out over Ho Chi Minh.

View from the hotel bar 

Ho Chi Minh was a complete contrast to the capital Hanoi. Not only was it warmer but it was much more modern with designer department stores, banks and sky scrapers and a lot more tourists. There was still however zillions of motorbikes and to cross the roads you step out, walk and hope for the best. We liked Ho Chi Minh a lot.