OK, this has got to be quick, because this Internet shop will be closing\nmin just a few minutes.<\/p>\n\n
The trip back from Cat Ba Island was a pleasant, lazy way to spend a day.<\/p>\n\n
Once back in Hanoi, we had dinner at an excellent restaurant and then\nproceeded to the airport, 30 km north of the city, by taxi.<\/p>\n\n
The airport is pretty swish, and the Vietnam Airlines flight was aboard\nwhat seemed like an almost new 767, too, so that was quite a change from\nLao Aviation.<\/p>\n\n
We arrived 1 hour and 45 minutes later in Ho Chi Minh City. Gone was the\ncoolness of Hanoi and we found ourselves once again in very humid weather,\nbut this time in the torrential rain.<\/p>\n\n
We didn’t arrive until 23:00, so we were a little concerned that we might\nnot be able to find a hotel without the shutter down. After all, the\nstreets of Hanoi are deserted at that time. Not so in Ho Chi Minh City:\nthe hotels were all open and we had no problem finding a room. Indeed, the\nonly problem was in negotiating a fair rate with a taxi driver at the\nairport, as every bugger in this part of the world wants to rip you off\n(and who can blame them, since so many tourists are cash laden and just\nasking to be relieved of their excess money).<\/p>\n\n
We were up very early today to make the most of our time in the city. Gone\nwas the rain, replaced by blazing sunshine and blue skies.<\/p>\n\n
We allowed ourselves to be persuaded to charter a couple of local guys and\ntheir motorbikes for a tour of the city. Sarah was very wary of the\nprecarious traffic at first, but this turned out to be an excellent idea,\nas these guys ferried us all over town for eight hours in total, for the\nprincely sum of $1 per hour. Not bad at all.<\/p>\n\n
We took in the Ho Chi Minh City museum, along with a couple of pagodas, a\ncouple of markets, Chinatown, a great noodle shop for lunch (the real\nthing — no English on the menus here), the Reunification Palace (formerly\nthe Presidential Palace) and, finally, an ice-cream shop (where I sampled\nan absolutely dreadful local fruit called durian — I was shocked to\ndiscover that Sarah liked it!).<\/p>\n\n
After relaxing at the hotel for a while, we had dinner at an upmarket\nVietnamese restaurant, travelling there and back by cyclo (bicycle taxi).<\/p>\n\n
Back on our home street, we’ve just had a relaxing foot massage and now\nit’s time for bed.<\/p>\n\n
Tomorrow, we’re heading out for a half-day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels,\nwhich were a huge network of tunnels that allowed the North Vietnamese\nArmy to conduct their operations while the ground and airspace above were\nunusable. Ingenious. Everywhere you look in this country, you can’t fail\nto be impressed by the ability of these people to use whatever means are\nat their disposal to do some very clever things to survive and progress.<\/p>\n\n
After a visit to the American War Crimes museum in the afternoon, that’ll\nbe it for tomorrow. The next day, we set off for a 3 day trip up the\nMekong Delta, which should prove to be outstanding. We can’t wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OK, this has got to be quick, because this Internet shop will be closing min just a few minutes. The trip back from Cat Ba Island was a pleasant, lazy way to spend a day. Once back in Hanoi, we … Continue reading