Saigon

So we had made it into Vietnam. Awesome. And we were in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh city, which is the largest city in the country. And now it was time to go exploring.

The main area of Saigon that we were interested in, and indeed 99% of all tourists who visit, was the area west of the river. The river scythes the city in two, and there seems to be only housing and industry on the east side, which wasn’t what we came here for. So we wandered out and down to the river, to see it all in daylight as it had all been quite manic and confusing the night before. It all seemed quite different in the light of day, maybe because we were at a different part of the river and couldn’t work out where we had been the night before, but there were still just as many motorbikes bombing along the road as there had been in pretty much each of the countries we had been through in Asia. Probably more so in Saigon than the others actually, and the tactic of running across the road when you see a gap is absolutely not the way to go in Vietnam. Slowly, slowly is the best approach here, as we quickly learned! We would be waiting on the side for ages whilst an old woman would calmly walk across the street with bikes, cars and even buses weaving around her. Madness!

Saigon baby!

The river wasn’t exactly the best waterway we had come across. This was possibly due to the brown tinge to the water itself, but more so for the fact that we saw the body of a bloated rat floating down the river. Even worse was that not two minutes later we identified the body of a small dog in a coat floating past us. Not very happy viewing.

The "lovely" river

As we neared the main are of the city we were getting hungry so grabbed some lunch near the Opera House. What we were really looking for in the afternoon was the Reunification Palace, but it was not easy to find, mainly because the map from the Ha My 3 hotel was utter garbage. It took us a while to find it, but when we did we weren’t disappointed. Famous for being the site of the end of the Vietnam War when two tanks came crashing through the gates. We were idly browsing the replica tanks and planes in the grounds when we noticed a girl photographing her boyfriend by one of the tanks, but he was not wearing the clothes we had previously seen him in – he was now wearing a pink “onesie” like a big adult baby. A bit weird we thought, but then we did our own little “round the world video clips” and they applauded in mutual appreciation.

Tank 843

We went inside the palace and walked round at our leisure. It was pretty glamorous inside, with dining tables, meeting rooms and even a cinema within. We caught a few bits of information from one of the tour guides who was taking a large group round, but as there was no charge for it we didn’t feel guilty about ear-wigging every now and again. Once we had finished with the palace it was time to head back to the AC of the hotel as we were struggling in the afternoon heat.

Chopper on the roof!

We had identified a cool little alley where there seemed to be quite a few good little eateries that we could choose from for dinner. We chose The Alley Cat as it seemed nice and the price was right. The French waiter/owner seemed friendly and attentive, but the food took so long to some that we nearly left and went next door. And when it did finally arrive it was very much average, possibly below average if I’m being honest. So we knew that we would not be going back there again!