Onwards and upwards to enjoy Hanoi

* Thursday, Friday, Saturday

On Thursday, we started our morning lounging around in slightly rainy Hoi An.  It was weird to see rain as we realised that this was the first time we had since Kaikoura in New Zealand, at the end of January!  Imagine 2 months without rain in UK???  It was quite nice to see the old droplets to be honest.  However, it was not cold...  Around 30 degrees C still.

Our taxi picked us up and took us to Da Nang to get our flight to Hanoi.  It was all so lovely and civilised and before you knew it we were in Hanoi airport getting picked up by our waiting guest house taxi driver.  We chose to arrange this as we've read about many taxi scams at the airport where you tell the quite authentic taxi driver in the taxi rank you hotel name and address and they take you to a completely different hotel, charge you loads for the taxi and then they try to force you to stay in said hotel.  Bugger that for a laugh!  It took about 1 minute to arrange with our Hanoi Guesthouse so it weren't a problem.

We had expected to get lunch on the 1 hour flight, (we did ask and were told "yes", but I think the default answer in Asia if they don't understand).  As we didn't we were super duper hungry and had to gnosh down some fake Pringles pronto in the airport arrivals.

Once on the road into crazy old Hanoi, we hit some pretty static traffic.  We thought, this must be the way it is, but as we progressed slowly up the road we saw this procession!  All very strange and spectacular but remained totally unexplained to us.  It's not for us to know about I suppose!  The guy almost looks like he is addressing, perhaps saying, "Welcome to Hanoi, Foreigner".

With that, we rolled up to Hanoi Guesthouse, in the spectacular Old Quarter, and was immediately greeted by 2 hyperactive young ladies carrying our bags into the guesthouse.  We were given a glass of water, our room key and some big smiles.  A few kind things like that go a long way with me and Ame!  The room was lovely and had a little balcony.  We dumped our stuff and got out and about. 

Just a side note, it is about 20 degrees C here in Hanoi so Amy thinks it is about -20...  And she would like you all to know that she had a tan, and it may be gone after the coolness of Japan...  ;-)

Hanoi is about as hectic as Saigon, with moto madness mayhem!  After throwing down a quick lunch at 16:30 we found ourselves in a Lonely Planet Recommended bar Legends to watch the crazy traffic from the balcony and the couples walking romantically around Hoan Kiem Lake.  We enjoyed a well deserved 1/2 litre of beer (well it's nearly a pint...)

It was fantastic watching the sun go down and the lights coming on.  It was such a pleasure to know that for twice the price of a bus ticket we had saved ourselves the pain in the ass (literally) of a 15 hour night bus or train from Hoi An (well Da Nang) to Hanoi.  It was nice to be buoyant and well rested for an arrival to a new city for a change!

So with that, we got along to Hang Be, a fairly well set up street but by no means to a standard like Siem Reap, and had a blooooming good Hanoi beer in the Le Pub.

We then had a gorgeous Indian curry opposite at Tandoor.  All round it was a real relaxing fun introduction to Hanoi.  It all felt very natural.

On Friday, we awoke to the noisy roosters on the opposite balcony.  Even in the city you can't escape the old ways.  God knows what South East Asia would do if Bird Flu in humans developed.  It would spell trouble...  We received our free brek and got down to Ocean Tours to discuss a few options with them.  We found them on TripAdvisor with super good reviews.  We arranged a Sapa Mountain Trek two day tour with them leaving on the Saturday night.  It was good to be doing something exploratory in the last few days of our trip.

We then went to the Ngoc Son Temple in the middle of the Hoan Kiem Lake.  It was enjoyable enough.

It had some really nice shrines to the General Tran Hung Dao who defeated the Mongols in the 13th century.

We then embarked on our own romantic stroll around the lake.  We particularly liked the strange Thap Rua (Tortoise Tower).  I love the old and the new contrasts of cities.

Then it was time for some real sight seeing (and lunch) so we hopped into a taxi to the Temple of Literature.  Before entering the main sight, we had lunch in, where else, but a non-profit cafe that trains up street kids.  Asia is so good at helping it's own.  The food was absolutely fantastic!  I had bun cha (a pork grilled pork noddle thing) and it's probably one of the best things I've had in Vietnam.

We then got into the Temple of Literature.  It was Hanoi's first ever University in the 11th Century.  It was beautiful, amazingly built and incredibly well maintained over the years. 

The whole complex is in a walled off rectangle area with lots of impress buildings and courtyards.  It even asks you to dismount your horse upon entry (a very old sign you see!)  We did as it asked of course.

It was chocker with what seemed like teenage school trips.  It made for very interesting viewing watching the teenage girls run around and have pictures taken with the single white men.  I was not chosen as I had this pesky girlfriend next to me...  Then suddenly they were all obediently lined up for prayer.  Quite amusing really.

 
It looked a little like the Vietnamese water puppets on sale...

We spent a good hour or so here, wrote some postcards, wandered about, and admired it all.

That evening, we had a quick dinner a few drinks then back for a good sleep.

On Saturday, we checked out and went to the Fine Arts museum.  You weren't allowed to take your camera in, hence no photos.  But it was enjoyable walking around looking all the different art styles of the centuries.

This afternoon, we've mainly been sitting doing a few jobs waiting until our night train goes this evening for our 3 nights 2 day Sapa trip.  It should be really exciting.  We're back to Hanoi on Tuesday morning when hopefully Grant and Christian from our Volunteering experience (remember that??) arrive.  Later that week all of us and a couple more volunteer friends Steve and Jack who are catching up to Hanoi, are booked on a Ha Long Bay trip, where we stay on an island for the night, not a boat (thank God - my sea legs have had enough!)  So hopefully it should be a good last week in South East Asia before our (expensive!) finale in the land of the rising sun!

"Suits you..."

* Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

We were glad to arrive in Hoi An on Sunday morning for a number of reasons. Firstly I was glad because this overnight bus may have been sparklier than the other but it was a lot less comfy and I hadn't had a very wonderful sleep, although Rob seemed ok on it due to having very short legs.

Secondly we were glad to arrive as we've been really looking forward to seeing Hoi An.  We had been told how beautiful it is and we were excited to see the town and visit one of the millions of tailors here to get some clothes made. When we did arrive it was 6am and so although our hotel were awake and we could leave our bags there we had hours to kill before we could get in our room, so into the town we went just as it was waking up for a really good explore and a very tasty breakfast.

When we got back to the hotel we had a quick snooze/read/rest before heading back into town to eat again and get a daytime impression of the place. On this second visit to town we got to see the prettiness of it once it wakes up. Pedestrianised streets; a mix of old Vietnamese, French, Chinese and Vietnamese buildings, flowering climbers lounging off the walls and beautiful fabrics, clothing, lanterns and art spilling out of all the shops. We found a balcony restaurant where we tried two of the many Hoi An specialty foods; Cau Lau noodles and crispy Wontons and from here we had a lovely view of it all.

After eating we went in search of a street with apparently the best selection of tailors; a good place to start we felt. Walking past one tailor shop after another at first it is hard to imagine how you will choose where and what to buy. However I started to get a feel for what I did and didn't like and when I spotted a dress I liked more than the rest we jumped feet first into this shop and got on with it. With three weddings to go to this summer I felt I had the perfect excuse for a fancy silk party dress and so got all measured up and arranged to return at 7pm to try it on.

Rob had been dreaming of a well fitted and snazzily designed suit and so after I'd so decisively got myself a dress he decided to get on with getting himself a suit. We had some criteria for the suit and a price limit.  After about three tries we found a place that could meet these criteria, where the ladies who measured him up were really friendly and seemed to know exactly what they were doing.  They even encouraged his choice of a bright purple lining - Rob was sold. He ordered the 80% cashmere suit (jacket, trousers), shirt and matching tie all for $110 (£70ish).

We were on a roll now and on the way back to the hotel I managed to get myself a brightly printed cotton dress too (well I can't wear the same dress to all three weddings can I?) With three significant orders under our belts we went back to the hotel to shower again (it's pretty hot here) and get ourselves ready for dinner. As I hadn't slept earlier I was flagging but was appeased by a visit to a French patisserie for coffee and cakes. This perked me right up and got me ready for returning to try on my pretty silver dress - it was a great fit and just needed to go back for a few adjustments.  I am very pleased with it.

By this point dinner was overdue so we went to a street food cafe opposite which was another place run for and by local kids in need and provided training and accreditation for them. Then we went back for an early night to rest up for our various tailoring appointments the next day.

Despite the early night I slept in a bit we had to head straight to our first appointment by the time we'd had our complementary brek and moved rooms to one with a window (I don't mind other things but I hate a room with no window).  In fact somehow we managed to fill the whole day popping back and forth to different shops where we were measured up or tried on masterpieces in the making.

I was persuaded to get a second cotton dress for a very good price by the lady who made the first. Plus I then decided it would be a good idea to get some shoes to match and a cheap pair of pumps. Plus Rob got a purple checked shirt and we both got of our favourite shorts copied as they are falling apart too soon.  In preparation for the colder Japanese climate I got measured for a jacket.  By this point we wondered if we were getting a bit out of control and put a freeze on spending. But we were very pleased with what we got and had each spent under $150 on six items each.  I was even able to collect my two cotton dresses and wear one out to dinner that night.

That evening we made it over the bridge to An Hoi (a different part of the town with a rather confusing name).  The town looked very pretty from across the river, you can see it behind me in the picture above. Everywhere was all lit up by lanterns.

We had drinks and dinner on the other side that night. We chatted to a very funny and slightly mad bar lady, eves dropped on the conversation of two overly intense American guys, ate pizza, drank beer and even stayed up until 10pm!

Tuesday morning we got up for a very different day.  No more clothes buying, we were off to Cham Island on a snorkling trip. It was fun being picked up by the mini bus and doing a group day out, it took us back to our antipodean traveling days. Unfortunately as we boarded the boat in the harbour and Rob turned a funny colour we realised we had optimistically blocked out one aspect of those memories - the part where Rob has his head in a bag until we reach dry land again. He was very good about it though and managed to keep hold of his stomach for the hour until we pulled into the sheltered cove where we got ready to go snorkling.

The snorkling was lovely, its not really the season for it but despite that we were shown some secret spots where this season's fish were hanging about and our favourite thing was all of the huge bright blue starfish - something I've never seen before. Rob recovered immediately once he got into the calm sea and we both enjoyed it very much.

After this we climbed back aboard for a quick journey to the Cham Island fisherman village. I did feel like were intruding a bit as we trailed through their village as you can't reach this village without permission and life here is as it has always been and revolves around fishing. They didn't seem to mind us popping by though and got on with packing up their fish.

Everywhere you looked there was both activity and serenity at once. And there was sealife drying all over the place.

We then walked the 2.5km around to the other side of the island to the beach where were to have our lunch. The views en route were beautiful; back down to the village:

And then down to stunning beach after stunning beach:

And then finally the beach in view was the one to which we were heading. It was a public beach but we were the only ones there. The little local restaurant cooked us a beautiful lunch of fish and seafood - definitely the best squid I've ever had, and then we got on with enjoying the beautiful beach.

Once I'd finished my book and let my lunch go down we frolicked in the sea some more. I went off for a swim and Rob did some more snorkling and saw a fish with two green tongues. Then before we knew it we were being herded onto a little wooden boat to return us to our ship (well slightly bigger wooden fishing boat). I enjoyed having to leap from the small to the big boat and then once that excitement was over we settled in the least sick making spot on the boat and waved goodbye to the island as the sun started to go down.

Back at the ranch we quickly got ready to head out as we had some nearly final pre-dinner tailor appointments and most importantly Rob was due to pick up his suit! It fitted perfectly, looks really good and he loves the shiny Prince style purple lining and matching purple tie (beware those who have invited Rob to your wedding this summer, there's more to this suit than meets the eye!)

I then picked up my shoes which are excellent too, a little snug but I am assured this is because the leather will stretch. And with our wares we headed into town for dinner and stumbled across a place where we had the best dinner yet, and then I called in another earlyish night after all the excitement of the day.
 
On the morn of our final day in Hoi An we finally got around to using the ticket we bought on arrival, to visit the old buildings and cultural sites in town.  You buy one ticket for three days and with that you can select five things to visit.  We had visited the oldest house in Town, Tan Ky, the other day which had been built by a Japanese family in Hoi An's finest trading years.  It was very beautiful and amazing how it had survived all these years despite the fact that every year the whole downstairs flooded.  Then this morning we also went to the Quan Cong Temple, where there were two turtles kissing in the pond.
 

Then to the Hoi An museum where we learnt a little more history and I bought some postcards.  Then finally to the old Phuc Kien Assembly Hall built in the 1800's as a haven for the Chinese living here to meet and socialise.  The gateways and doorways were as ornate as the inside.
 

Plus we caught the second half of a cultural dance performance that told a traditional story about an old fisherman (you can tell he's old by his very realistic white beard which he stroked repeatedly throughout the performance).

 
Today it is boiling so once our five tickets were spent we went back to our hotel to use the very cold pool that we hadn't yet been brave enough to get into.  We welcomed the coldness today though and felt much refreshed after.

We then had a spot of lunch and spent a few hours getting some jobs sorted and getting our packing done.  At 4pm we had our final appointment at the tailor next door who had been making our shorts, my jacket and who kindly agreed to adjust my three dresses (which I got in different shops but which once I wore for a few hours proved to need a little adjustment).  God knows how we're going to get all this stuff onto the plane tomorrow without paying for excess baggage?  A good excuse to carry my fancy new jacket about to show it off though (I can't quite get used to how smart it is yet, but I'm sure that soon enough either it'll smarten me up or I'll manage to make it look scruffy.)
 
This evening we got out in time to watch the sun set over the river.  Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy for this but the town still looked beautiful as the sun went down.

As we weren't quite ready for dinner we went and played a few games of pool to a backdrop of excellent music.  I even beat Rob once and pulled a move that made a random guy clap, although on the whole I was very hit and miss.  Rob than challenged the clapping guy to the game and succeeded in beating him.  On this high note we decided it was dinner time and headed to the acclaimed Mango Rooms where even Sir Mick Jagger has eaten.  The food was a little pricier than we hoped but we got round this by having one main and one salad - an excellent choice as it turned out.  The food was fresh and tasty and gorgeous.  Then we popped into the Patisserie next door for a shared chocolate mousse to ensure we were properly full.  All round it was a perfect night and a lovely way to end our time here in Hoi An.

Life's a beach

* Friday, Saturday

Early Friday, we arrived in Nha Trang in style on our bumpy night bus with bunk beds!!!  We awoke whilst still on the road about 05:30 when the sun comes up (about an hour earlier than we've grown used to in Cambodia). 

The sunrise was brilliant as usual.  Ame undid her window and took a good little picture as we cruised along the east coast. 

It was about 07:00 by the time we got to our hotel and we understandably had to wait a while before we could get our room.  So we had a little brek at a nice restaurant opposite the sea and beach.  First impressions of Nha Trang, were that it was a lot more set up and used to the needs and desires of the Western Tourist.  The beach was very pretty, there are a couple of places to hire comfortable sun loungers like the Sailing Club and Louisianne Brewhouse.  It is compact place and has a square of streets with good restaurants and nightlife etc.  To be honest, after a few weeks of traveling, we were ready for a little bit of beach life.  However, we took the decision to only stay here 2 days and 1 night as there doesn't feel that there's as much to see and do here and we're eager to get up to Hoi An.  We might have been tempted to stay if we had the volunteering crowd with us from the past 6 weeks, but not enough to keep us here for just the two of us. 

So with that decision made, we checked into our very good, spacious clean hotel room with sea views (for a whopping $14 for the night) and decided to have a potter about.  We had traditional rice noodle soup for lunch and then headed off for the local on-beach water park for a little fun on some slides.  We had a beautiful walk along the beach to the park.

Strangely, the park was completely shut.  It was like a ghost town.  With no explanation, we thought, sod it, let's go and lounge about on the beach at the Loisianne Brewhouse sun beds.  This place also had a swimming pool, which you need when you've got a huge ocean in front of you; well I do anyway. 

We lazed, read, slept, I listened to the "Utterly impartial history of Britain", went in the sea and the swimming pool.

It was all very relaxing and well worth the stop off in Nha Trang just for this.

We went back to the hotel and freshened up for the evening.  We had a few happy hour drinks in the bars and then had traditional clay pot stew, which was very, very heavy on the fish sauce.  Nice to try, probably not again though.  With that, it was time for beddy byes after being awake since 05:30.

Today, we got up, had brek in the same gorgeous place as the day before and checked out (leaving our bags until the later night bus).  In order to get over all the stress of laying on the beach the previous day and to prepare to endure it all again this afternoon, we needed to spend the morning in a thermal spa.  So off we went about 5km up the road to the Phap Ba Thermal Spa.

Having already researched that we could get the house special private thermal mud bath for 2 for the mere price of $20 for an hour, it was an obvious choice. 

So up we went to our bath.  It was not quite as private as imagined - they pack quite a lot of people quite close but can't complain really as it was all very serene.  Ame got in first:

Then myself.  So covered in mud, we sat and enjoyed the scenery.  Apparently it was doing our skin good.  To me it was just out and out a good laugh and a good experience.  Can't imagine I'll do too many mud baths, other than all the Hen do's I'll be invited to in the future...

For our price admission, we were free to use the pools, jucuzzi's and waterfalls (my particular favourite).

As it was Saturday, the place was packed with Vietnamese people as well so you knew this one weren't just a cynical tourist trap.  Because of this the restaurant was very reasonably priced and we had what was probably one of the best meals we've had since being here.  We shared Sesame Pork with Chili and Ginger and Spinach with Oyster sauce.  Scrum. 

So with all that relaxing under our belt, we felt that we might just have the strength to sit at the Sailing Club for the rest of the day.  I finished my audio book, we swam again, and I typed this blog entry.  All in all, can't really complain.  Nha Trang has been very pleasant to us.  As I write, there is "Rock Storm 2010" warming up for tomorrow, with badly sung metal songs by Vietnamese bands being played, and a stage being set up tonight at the sailing club called "Insomnia"...  They've just been sound checking here and playing funky house tunes.

The 18 year old US girls near me look fairly excited.  We are a little disappointed to be missing the beach party but we're telling ourselves it's going to be fairly expensive, loud and late and its not as tempting without the others for company.  I hope the KIDZ enjoy it.  Hoi An, and my dream suit, here we come...

Good Morning Vietnam!

* Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

As if you didn't see that title coming!!!  On Wednesday morning we awoke safe and sound in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) after a bit of crazy day traveling on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, we begun our day at 06:00 in Kep.  We needed to be able to cross the border and get from the small Vietnamese town of Ha Tien (just on the other side of the border) to Saigon that day.  Wary that we did not want to get scammed out of loads of money, we had arranged with a trustworthy Western run guesthouse in Kampot that they would arrange to take us across the border straight to Ha Tien Bus Station where we would get on a bus to Saigon.  At 07:00 two motos turned up and we were not happy.  We were lead to believe this would be a car.  After a bit of an argument with them on the phone, we decided we were running out of time already that day and got on the moto's with all our stuff.  It was actually quite fun and we got to the border around 08:30.  It was really easy going through the border.  Our motos came with us and before you knew it we were at Ha Tien bus station around 09:00.  We then found out that the 10:00 bus we were heading for was indeed now the 08:30 and had left.  There's absolutely no way of finding this out in advance.  We then had to take two more motos to the next town to try and get on a bus.  When we got there, of course this bus was $35 each (should of been $8 each) so at this point we were scammed but at least we were on the move.

We started our journey on a public bus to Long Xuyen (halfway point) whilst watching the locals pay about $0.10 for the ride.  Four hours later when we arrived at Long Xuyen, the bus conducter signaled to us to get on another bus to Saigon.  Luckily this was an A/C bus full of monks!  You can't go far wrong with a bus full of monks.  The next 4 hours wasn't so bad and we got some sleep.  Eventually rolling into Saigon bus station at 18:30.  A quick (fair priced meter taxi) to our hotel and we were soon out and about, toasting to the future (with a Saigon beer no less) and ignoring the hassles of the day.

Our guest house, Luan Vu on Bui Vien Road, is LOVELY.  And the staff here were excellent that evening.  We went to sleep looking forward to the next day.

On Wednesday, we awoke, had our free breakfast, and quickly got out for the day.  We were roughly following the Lonely Planet's walking tour with a few personal alterations.  We started by walking to the Ben Thanh Market.  It was very fun and vibrant and we thought we'd go back there for lunch.  We then wandered up the road to a destination favoured by Ame:  The Continental Hotel.  This featured heavily in the book "The Quiet American" which Ame read and we both watched the 2002 remake of the film with Michael Caine.  The day pictures of hotel were good but we've included a shiney picture of it at night from later in the day.

We then sat in their cafe for about 2 hours reading aloud the entire modern history of Vietnam (according to the Lonely Planet).  It was so relaxing to take some time out in a nice, comfortable place.  It was very interesting and factual read and I realised how little I actually know about the Vietnam Wars.

After all that blooming brain activity it was time for some nosh.  Off back to
the market for some Pho (Rice Noodle soup) and Chicken noodles (with two large bottle of water it all came to about $3.5).  It was delicious and felt very real as all of the locals were eating there too.

Next, it was on to the now called Reunification Palace.  This Palace has a complex little history.  First it was the French Governer-General's in 1868 called the Norodom Palace.  Then, when the American's starting getting involved in foreign affairs in the mid 60's (when it was extensively re-built complete with underground bunker) it was known as the Independence Palace or Presidential Palace.  It continued with this name during the whole of the Vietnam war.  After the Americans pulled out in 1973 (after a grostesque war that really gained nothing for anyone except delaying the inevitable of the North Vietnam taking the whole country), the North Vietnamese started advancing towards Saigon.  In 1975, then then President of South Vietnam, Nguyen Van Thieu, made a military blunder by making all units fall back for protect Saigon.  This meant that the towns and cities along the way were taken sometimes without a shot being fired.

As the tanks approached Saigon, Thieu resigned and fled the country with millions of US Dollars.  Leaving Duong Van Minh as president for just 43 hours.  On the 30th April 1975, North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Independance Palace (a little like this one...)

I quote from Lonely Planet (the definitive source of all history of course):

"After crashing through the wrought-iron gates - in a dramatic scene recorded by photojournalists and shown across the world - a soldier ran into the building and up the stairs to unfurl a VC flag from the 4th floor balcony.  In an ornate 2nd floor reception chamber, General Minh who had become head of the South Vietnamese state only 43 hours before, waited with his improvised cabinet.  'I have been waiting since early this morning to transfer power to you', Minh said to the VC Officer who entered the room.  'There is no question of your transferring power', replied the officer.  'You cannot give up what you do not have.'"

I think the whole thing sounds very dramatic!   So with all that said, here it is:

To look at it isn't that exciting, but the history of it made it so much more interesting.  We had a bloody good walk around the whole place.  Of particular interest was the creepy underground bunker.  This still had untouched communication devices downstairs from that day, presidential quarters (incredibly basic) and war room.  It was weird walking through it's corridors.

 
We spent about an hour there and it was well worth of $1 entrance fee!  It had a small museum inside that was very interesting.

Next we embarked on a slow walk back to our accomodation via a brief glimpse at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum.  We were a bit museum and historied out by this point so we just took a picture of the stunning old colonial architecture:

We then went to a trendy ice cream joint called X-Cafe, took in another small outdoor street market then made it back for a quick shower and out in a taxi to watch sunset on the 23rd floor of the 5* Sheridon Hotel!  After being turned away from the Sky Tower in Bangkok, we decided to dress smart and me in jeans so we could get in.  It was certainly very swanky but we needn't of bothered dressing up as all the other tourists were in their bum-bags and shorts!  It's nice to be smart sometimes though.

The views were stunning.  Eventually we got a window seat after being very patient (of course everyone is vying for one) and we took yet another stunning sunset shot.

It was also happy hour were you bought 2 cocktails and got 2 free.  A little odd but it meant we got two drinks each and didn't cost that much relatively speaking considering where we were.

We had researched a good charity restaurant for dinner that trains up street kids and disadvantage kids in the restaurant business.  We were so impressed with what we found.  It was super.  We had traditional Vietnamese food, one dish was beef and thien ly flower.  Never had flowers for dinner before!

Ame even enjoyed some lotus tea!  All round it was a fantastic meal.  We got the taxi on the way home to drop us just at the corner of our accommodation so that I could take some experimental no-flash ISO 800 pictures of the cross roads of traffic.  Anyone who has been to Vietnam will remember the first time they crossed 8 lanes of crazy moto madness and rejoiced when then reached the other side of the road.  The city is crazy and vibrant but some how a bit more charming than Bangkok and a load more developed than Phnom Penh.  I hope I captured some of this in the below photos.

It was then off to bed to rest up for another near full day in this interesting and fun city.

On Thursday, we had our brek and sorted some jobs.  We needed to check out at 12:00 and be back in the hotel by 19:30 to be picked up by our overnight bus to Nha Trang on the East Coast.

So we headed out to find yet another cool, charity run cafe Suzo for a spot of lunch.  Then we walked to the Fine Art Museum.

I was surprised how much we liked the contemporary art as it was very war related.  I suppose it showed everyday life and thoughts rather than out and out war shots.  It was interesting.

Then we jumped in a taxi and tried to go to this cafe up near a pagoda we wanted to see.  We found it but we're pretty sure it had changed name.  That's the problem with guide books sometimes as cities change so rapidly.  It was still nice and we had an iced coffee to try and beat the heat fatigue.

The Xa Loi Pagoda was cool.  They are amazing structures and they feel very Asian.  We had a little look about and then jumped into another taxi.

We've already picked where we're going for dinner tonight.  To be honest, we've loved Saigon, but it's time to move on.  It is a little exhausting.  We'll always remember for the crazy crazy moto traffic zooming and swerving around us.

So I sit writing this in Suzo (again - it's got good wireless connection!) eating a fruit platter.  Tomorrow we shall awake in Nha Trang.