Good morning Vietnam

After a quick one night stop in Jakarta, that was mostly spent inside the mall getting our computer fixed, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh city a.k.a. Saigon. Our first stop in Vietnam, we quickly made our way to the first Pho place we could find and tucked into a large bowl of beef noodle soup washed down with a cold Saigon (beer).  Venturing out the following day we were struck by the millions of mopeds in the city....crossing the road appeared to be impossible until a local let us in on the secret.

One of the tamer intersections in Saigon

Step 1: Take a deep breath.
Step 2: Walk out, with confidence, into what looks like an impenetrable wall of mopeds zipping by
Step 3:  Keep up a steady pace, and like magic they will just move and ride around you
**BUT under no circumstance can you stop, reverse or run**
Doing this worked as well as Moses parting the red sea and before you know it, we were pros.  

Entrance into the Cu Chi tunnel system

That first adventure completed, our next cultural activity was a trip to the Củ Chi tunnels.  Located about 2 hours outside of Saigon, these tunnels were used by
the Vietnamese to hide from the Americans during the war.  After an extremely biased (but understandably so) introduction we wandered around the area and got to try out the tunnels ourselves.  All I can say is that after five minutes of crawling through the tunnels on hands and knees I was ready to keel over, so living in them must have been a nightmare.  Like all good developing countries, they also had a gun range for us eager tourists to test out some big guns.  Noah and I opted for the AK-47, bought a round of ammunition and emptied the chamber in about 5 seconds each. Quickest 5 quid we ever spent...but hey, how often do you get to fire a real AK-47 without proper safety constraints?

Noah taking his turn with the AK-47

I am a sushi nut, and crave it on a regular basis so when we found a cheap, but VERY good Japanese restaurant we had to try it.  3 times in fact.  But not to ignore Vietnamese food entirely, we still managed to have numerous Banh Mi ‘s from the street vendors, along with massive bowls of Pho.   We spent a few days wandering around the city, getting hair cuts, head massages and manis and pedis and just generally spoiling ourselves before a 6 hour bus ride to Cambodia.

mmmm sushi

Ho Chi Minh Fast Facts
Currency: Vietnamese Dong   25,000 = £1
Local Beers: Saigon, Hanoi
Average price of a vodka tonic: £2
Average price for dinner  for 2 incl. drinks (restaurant):£9
Average price for dinner  for 2 incl. drinks (street food):£2
Average price for a manicure: £1
Favourite national dish: It’s a tie between Banh Mi and Beef Pho