After a late night last night I thought I might be able to sleep a little later this morning, but no, of course everyone else got up at the crack of dawn and started yelling and banging doors. Mind you, the rooster that seems to have settled in our resort overnight actually started crowing at 4.30am. I hate roosters!! Since there don’t seem to be any horses in Vietnam to dispatch them they probably breed like flies. Ugh!
I managed to miss putting my right contact in this morning so I had a somewhat very slightly blurry breakfast at around 7.30, and swim afterwards until I worked out what I’d done, but it is in now and I am just waiting for checkout at noon and then the flight to Ho Chi Minh City.
I have to admit I am a little apprehensive about that since everyone we have met along the way reckons that it is a madhouse and even worse than Hanoi with the traffic and the amount of people there.
I am hoping that the hotel will be in a quieter part of the city that will enable us to be able to walk around a bit. One of the staff the other night said that it had two climates there, hot and very hot, so perhaps we won’t be walking too far anyway.
Well we made it to Ho Chi Minh after a short flight and a long wait for our luggage.
After being in Vietnam a week we saw our first accident after we had pulled away from the hotel in Hoi An, when a dog ran in front of a man on a motorbike and the man ended up falling sideways . I think he was okay, and the dog just ran off.
There was no one to meet us when we got to the airport at Ho Chi Minh so I had to WhatsApp Tammy to find out where our ride was. I sent her a photo of where we were standing and a couple of minutes later a man came to collect us. I think he must have been waiting at the International terminal.
Off we went then through the enormous city braving the horrendous traffic with literally thousands of people hurtling along on motorbikes and mingling with cars and trucks. I think we may have killed about a dozen people along the way but I had my eyes shut most of the way so it could have been more.
Our driver was pointing out things along the way but since we could only understand a word or two I’m not sure if he said anything interesting. I did pick up something about Bahn Me at a place he pointed out which was so crowded that you could be waiting days to get served.
We made it alive to the hotel which is on the corner near the river. It is quite old but nice enough. Not too sure about the 5 stars though.
Tomorrow we have another early start for our trip to the Mekong River for a tour on the river and visiting various islands and places.
Jill D
2023-03-31
Sensational Saigon!