After a 12 hour or so flight and a couple of hours in Singapore airport where we had $15 glasses of beer, we arrived in Saigon at 9pm. To step out into 90% humidity at that time of night is something I have never experienced, in fact the whole city chaos was an exciting event. The motorbikes weave in and out seemingly at random, 100's of them, and being a Sunday night lots of men were driving girlfriends around town. Its quite a social event, people hold conversations and smoke cigarettes as they drive side by side in the throng of traffic. I saw two huge trucks which wouldn't have been out of place in a mining site towering over the rest of the traffic, perhaps left over from the American war. The taxi we were in changed lanes incessantly as did most other cars. The bikes of course have their own rules, like turningor in front of a car going the same way, or riding against the traffic flow. Despite what I say the traffic flows very smoothly and there are no raised voices or road rage of any kind that I saw. I watched the Vietnamese crossing the roads and adopted their method of fixing my eyes on the approaching hordes and holing up my open hand.
When we arrived at the hotel and were dropped off I realised that the taxi driver hadn't left my laptop and I went down to the concierge and he rang the taxi company to have it delivered
. The taxi driver was apologetic but made us ring the taxi company to ensure that they knew it was my mistake and not his as he had charged me 100,000 dong to bring it back. Thats $5. A small bottle or can of beer is 25,000 D or $1.50. When I got to my room and had a shower I realised I didnt have the keys to my case, this was the last straw. Marley came to the rescue and broke the zipper tab which I had padlocked. So much for Belita's case. Don't worry Bel , I'll buy another. During the night the AC broke down and I spent the sweatiest night of my life, sleeping very fitfully, the next day the concierge sent up the maintemance man who pointed the remote at it and of course it broke into life, although later in the day I came home and there was a man dissembling the AC unit. Its working fine now so good on them for responding.
Ho Chi Minh City
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Other Entries
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1Getting ready
Sep 056 days priorDaylesford, Australiaphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 1 -
2Ho Chi Minh City
Sep 11Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnamphoto_camera14videocam 0comment 1 -
3Day 2 Ho Chi Minh
Sep 121 day laterHo Chi Minh City, Vietnamphoto_camera11videocam 0comment 1 -
4Ho Chi Minh Day 3
Sep 132 days laterHo Chi Minh City, Vietnamphoto_camera13videocam 0comment 1 -
5Cao Dai and Cu Chi
Sep 154 days laterCủ Chi, Vietnamphoto_camera17videocam 0comment 1 -
6First day in Hoi An
Sep 154 days laterHoi An, Vietnamphoto_camera9videocam 0comment 4 -
7Hoi An Day 2
Sep 165 days laterHoi An, Vietnamphoto_camera21videocam 0comment 0 -
8The Old Town visit
Sep 176 days laterHoi An, Vietnamphoto_camera20videocam 0comment 0 -
9Trip to Hue
Sep 187 days laterHue, Vietnamphoto_camera11videocam 0comment 1 -
10HUE DAY2
Sep 198 days laterHue, Vietnamphoto_camera23videocam 0comment 0 -
11Down Perfume River
Sep 209 days laterHue, Vietnamphoto_camera41videocam 0comment 0 -
12From Hue back to Hoi An
Sep 2110 days laterHoi An, Vietnamphoto_camera7videocam 0comment 1 -
13FAMILY Bizness
Sep 2211 days laterHoi An, Vietnamphoto_camera17videocam 0comment 2 -
14Never enough Bahn Mi
Sep 2312 days laterHoi An, Vietnamphoto_camera9videocam 0comment 3 -
15Swallows nests and Cao Lau
Sep 2413 days laterHoi An, Vietnamphoto_camera12videocam 0comment 0 -
16The noise, the noise
Sep 2514 days laterHoi An, Vietnamphoto_camera15videocam 0comment 0 -
17Quiet day
Sep 2615 days laterHoi An, Vietnamphoto_camera13videocam 0comment 0 -
18Final Supper
Sep 2716 days laterHoi An, Vietnamphoto_camera20videocam 0comment 1 -
19Leaving day
Sep 2817 days laterHo Chi Minh, Vietnamphoto_camera5videocam 0comment 0 -
20Back Home
Sep 3019 days laterDaylesford, Australiaphoto_camera16videocam 0comment 2
Comments

2025-02-10
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Diane Farr Golling
2011-09-14
This is great - loving the blog, and you will be so glad you did this! Nothing like a travel diary to bring it all back to you.
So far the only thing giving you away as an inexperienced traveler is the locking-the-luggage bit. LOL ... as you discovered, locks wouldn't stop a thief for five seconds, but they are very good at keeping their owners out!