Admin in Saigon

If Mui Ne taught me one thing it's that I'm spending far too long on this blog! The problem is the more we do, the more I have to write about, but the less time I have to do it. Now, after Mui Ne, and doing nothing fun in Saigon I think I can catch up... but I'm going to try and be more brief in future AND keep up to date.

Bikes!

Snails

The bus on the way to Saigon broke down, but we didn't have to wait long before we were decanted on the another tour company's bus. The room we got here is another step down: on the fifth floor, the roof, which was fun with a 30kg bag, with construction work going on just outside our room, on the roof of the next hotel. And we suspected bed bugs, but I think that was just paranoia after realising the bed had not been properly changed: there was hair on the undersheet. Saigon seems like a lot of fun though, and the food is excellent again.

Dale and Erin

But all we've done is find a dentist, plan when we are going to re-schedule our flights to, got pissed with a couple of Americans who were celebrating getting a long-term lease. English teachers of course (just like most of the ex-pats here). Then, today, we got Joanne's tooth fixed, spent ages looking for travel agents, which have all moved since our information was printed, so that we can reschedule our flights; this turned out to be a lot more expensive that we expected i.e. free, with a possible SMALL admin fee. Hmpf!

Air-conditioning in german bier halle

At least we found a large German bier halle during our wanders, where they make excellent beer, and have unusual fans which disperse water aerosol as a low-tech aircon system (while the barman picks his nose). The one down so far, is that I was cheated at a bia hoi place. The old woman who was in charge, pretended I'd given her 50000 rather than 100000. I think a lot of people land here, so she must take advantage of their unfamiliarity with the money. Of course she loses, really, because this place was the cheapest around and just opposite our hotel. There is no way we'd have spent anything like as little as 50000 over the next three days. It's very annoying though. More the insult than the two pounds she stole, really! So the last thing we had to organise here is our trip to Cambodia via the Mekong delta, which Joanne is off doing right now.

The last thing you need to know about Saigon is that there are LOADS of mopeds.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam