Final Destination: Saigon

The bus to Saigon was our last long bus ride and was fairly uneventful except for one girl being sick. She nearly made it out of the bus but threw up on the steps.

We arrived in Saigon at about 6 and headed to the place where we had agreed to meet with Shana and Fernando. Unfortunately we picked up a moto driver and he followed us in and exchanged a few words with the owner in Vietnamese and told us there weren't any rooms left. We found out later that it wasn't.

He continued to follow us around and so we ducked into the next place quickly and said straight away that he wasn't with us. It took a few hours for them to get a room ready but we went to an internet cafe for a bit first then checked in. Dave crashed for a while and I headed out for a walking tour of Saigon.

Our hotel was on Phang Ngu Lao which is the backpacker haunt in Saigon and has lots of small alleys off various streets with hostels, tailors and shops selling all kinds of stuff. Saigon was very active by now and I was getting the usual 'moto?' requests. The road ended at a large roundabout with a statue of Tran Nguyen Hai who is a Vietnamese hero. The other side was Ben Thanh markets, a big old style building where you could buy just about anything and I bought nothing cos I've got no money left. Ok, a little.

From there I wandered up towards the central district (called district 1) and to the Ho Chi Minh Museum. It had a few war remnants in the courtyard including an A-1 and a Huey. There was a wedding going on - well the wedding photos anyway but the museum was still open although I had to change direction a few times to avoid being in some of the happy couple's snaps. The museum was a history of Vietnam with a lot of historic artifacts but with a focus (unsurprisingly) on the French and American wars. I even got stopped by an old Vietnamese guy who wanted his picture taken with me. The perils of being famous!!

After the museum I wandered towards Notre Dame cathedral which was made of red brick and so wasn't that impressive and the main post office which was very impressive. Old colonial style and all that. I slowly wandered back to the hotel and woke Dave up at this point.

After lunch we headed to the Presidential palace which was where the VC tanks crashed through the gates famously in 1975 after the American withdrawal. Most of the palace remains just as it was in 1975. The first floor was mainly reception rooms (different ones for domestic guests and for international guests and they looked pretty much the same. Oh the extravangancies...) Other floors had a games room and a cinema. On the rooftop was another Huey (the Americans seem to have left a lot behind) and two markers from a direct hit by a VC bomber.

We then headed to the War Remnants Museum (previously called the American and Chinese War Crimes Museum). This was on a par with S-21 and the Killing Fields as a traumatic experience. The first exhibition was about the journalists who covered the war, many of whom lost their lives doing so. There were some phenomenal photos including the famous photo of the girl just after a Napalm attack and a family trying to swim for safety. One I hadn't seen before was a plane about to crash.

The courtyard was full of tanks, planes and, you've guessed it, a Huey.

There was another exhibition full of photos of victims of the war - mainly disfigured by Agent Orange. It was yet another harrowing experience and we were very down leaving the museum reflecting on everything we'd seen.

Sitting on the beach in Nha Trang

We had probably our worst bus journey to get to Nha Trang - the only seats left were at the back and slightly raised so that when people in front pushed their seats back it squashed our knees. I was also sat next to a Vietnamese guy who kept falling asleep on my shoulder. We also had an unknown person (no-one took credit) who threw up in the middle of the aisle and we all had to gingerly step over it at the first break stop.

Got a fair bit of sleep though and arrived in Nha Trang at about 6AM. Our hotel was only a block and a half from the bus stop though so it wasn't too much of an effort to get to. Dave crashed and I went for a wander round the place. It was much more modern than Hoi An and sits right on the beach. All the Vietnamese get up early and were already leaving the beach by this time.

We headed down to the beach about lunch time and were finding a spot to sit when we bumped into Shana and Fernando yet again! We've decided they are stalking us. Although technically they get to places before us.

We set ourselves down with them - the loungers and umbrellas are free but you have to buy food and beer from the people who own the loungers.

We spent the afternoon sunbathing, drinking and eating with the odd dip in the sea. We also got chatting to two American guys and a Dutch girl sat next to us.

Fernando and I roped some Vietnamese kids into playing football with us on the beach and found it hard work as instead of just passing it round with fancy flicks and the like they ran around like duracell bunnies making sure that by the end Fernando and I were knackered. For the record, my team won 4-1!

We had dinner with them that night at a fancy restaurant on the beach front. We balked at the prices before realizing they were still really cheap - just a little more expensive than we had been paying!! It was both of our last nights in Nha Trang although they were flying to Saigon the following morning and we were following on an overnight bus. We made arrangements with them to catch up in Saigon and stay at the same place.

The following morning we were up early for an island trip. We were taken to the harbour and there was complete chaos. Thankfully we were guided through it all and stuck on a boat. It was a fairly small boat with benches fixed facing forwards. It had a cover but nowhere to sit up top. There were about eight white people and the rest were Vietnamese and Chinese.

We got chatting to an Aussie girl called Caz traveling on her way to the UK. She had had a moto accident and was sporting some seriously impressive looking bruises.

We eventually got going but then turned around just out of the harbour because we had some people on the wrong boat. Eventually we got going properly and headed out to sea past an impressive looking Cruise ship. Our first stop was the island of something or other, which was our snorkeling stop. After diving off the top deck we spent about forty minutes snorkeling around. It was better than Hoi An although a lot busier as there were a few other boats around too.

We then cruised around the corner for lunch which was a mixture of veggie spring rolls, various squid and pork dishes and, of course, rice! We got chatting to the other non-Asian tourists: an English couple called Chris and Anna, a Swiss girl called Laure-Anne and an older Aussie couple whose names I didn't catch it.

After lunch they got out the entertainment which was a guy on guitars, a guy on home made drums and our main guide singing. He did a mixture of Vietnamese, Chinese and English songs. Because Dave is Canadian (and everyone in Asia seems to know that Canada is part French) we got a French song: a bizarre rock and roll version of Frere Jacques!

Once the entertainment was complete it was happy hour. This was seriously bizarre. It involved our guide getting into a life ring with a crate of wine tied to the boat (the life ring, not the crate) and the rest of us on life rings drinking wine, whilst floating in the sea and trying not to let the current take us away. Firstly, it was the most disgusting wine I've ever tasted. Secondly, every time you got hit by a wave it became part sea water. All of this didn't stop a lot being drunk!! It was amazing we all got back in one piece although when we eventually stood up back on the boat it was with wobbly legs.

Next stop was another island (OK so I can't remember any of the names) which was just a beach stop. Except it had pebbles instead of sand. We hired some deckchairs and after a quick swim (and nearly getting run over by a boat) I promptly fell asleep for our entire stay.

Our final stop was another island whose name I've forgotten which had an aquarium which was made to look like a kind of pirate ship. It wasn't that impressive a place and the moray eels looked kind of pissed off which isn't surprising given how small their tank was. We lost a drunk Caz and found her later wandering around. Chris, Anna, Dave and I almost planned a turtle breakout but didn't fancy Vietnamese prison.

We headed back to the harbour in time to see the cruise ship leaving. More chaos ensued as we disembarked and were met with about forty advertising leaflets, lots of moto and taxi drivers. Thankfully our bus was there to rescue us.

We pretty much had time for a shower, dinner with Laure-Anne and to catch our bus to Saigon and our last stop in Vietnam.