Goodbye Bangkok Hello Saigon, Vietnam

29/06
What a lousy night.......No sleep.......Knew we had to wake up early, our taxi was fetching us at 5:00 am.  No way did we want to be late.  Hooray!  Yippee!  Whoopee!  We  leave Bangkok today!  Definitely not sorry to go.  We are tired of dour faced Thais.  I always thought they were a happy nation but No Way!  They hardly smile, and certainly aren't interested in trying to understand you or help you.
Right we have our ambition.  Our taxi driver arrives early.  Get our bags stowed in the boot and off we go to the airport.
We go and check in and .......... Oh No!  Our flight is non-existent!  We have to catch the 4:00pm flight!  We were told that our agent had screwed up and that it was his fault!  Anyway they gave us vouchers to buy food while we wait.
When we got to the board with all flights on and checked it only to find that Air Asia had cancelled the flight and it had nothing to do with our agent!  Nice One!!!!!
Oh well get over the boring and frustrating day and get on with the better part of the day.......Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon as most still call it, in Vietnam.  Ooooops taxis are the same!!!!  They try and take a chance so we walked almost out of the airport and found a cabbie that was prepared to put his meter on!

OMG.  The Traffic!!!!!!  The Bikes!!!!!!  What an unbelievable sight.  In the plane just before landing I told Frank that it looked like millions of ants, wearing helmets, but wow driving in amongst it was bloody scary! 

The hotel we staying in is awesome, clean and quiet (no more tuc-tuc noises of Bangkok.)  As soon as we dropped our bags off we went walking around.

HELP!!!!!!! One they drive on the wrong side of the road, - Two they seem to forget what side they are on.  In other words they drive anywhere and everywhere, including the sidewalks!!!  You must walk where you find a space and know that somebody will blow his horn at you!

30/06

Good Morning Saigon!

Oh yes back to normal, up early looking for ambition!  We are back amongst friendly, smiling people.  What a pleasure!

We got a map and started walking all over, braving road crossings with our hearts sitting somewhere in the top of our throats!  We found the market and walked around but, whoa, it is crowded with people and stands.  You get pounced on at every stand trying to get you to buy something.

Boy but it is hot.  I think I am perspiring even more here.  We found a park and rested our weary legs in the shade of large flamboyant trees.

We slowly made our way back to the hotel.

Oooooooooh Yes!  Frank has even admitted he wouldn't go on a bike here!!!!!  I don't even think I would drive a car here.  I would be a nervous wreck within 2 minutes!

01/07

Up early again!  We went and booked our Open Bus tickets, so we move onto Da Lat tomorrow, where we will stay for a couple of nights.  There aren't many CS hosts here it is more like meet for coffee, so will be staying in another Hotel/Guest House!

Oh I forgot, yesterday the electricity was out all day, which isn't surprising when you look at the wireworks in the streets.  Scary Stuff!  Our room is on the 6th floor.  Oh my heavens my knees nearly conked!  I had to fetch the camera so didn't have an option!  Oh well I still live to talk about it so  it couldn't have been that bad!???

Now on with today.  We went walking again, now we found a "Boys" market, hardware, tools, motor bike & car spares.  Stalls after stalls, it makes you wonder how anyone can make a living with so much competition.

We bought some street food for lunch and sat in the park again, watching the world go by.  We made it back to the hotel just before the storm erupted, which put paid to further walking for a while, so I have been able to catch up a bit with the blog, but of course I will get behind again.  There is too much to see and do and so little time!