Saigon - 4th December 2009

Landed in the hustle and bustle of Saigon at 6.00 in the morning – was so tired it was hard to walk the streets and so we walked with caution so we would not get run over. Had the worst sleeper bus ride yet as we were forced to the back of the bus where you can feel every bump of the road. We got cozy with 3 other people in the back (spooning) and the sleeping tablets did not work so it was a long ride. (That was Liam’s perspective…Aileen had the best of her sleeper bus experiences as could actually lie out straight and got nearly 5 hours sleep!!).

Got an ok room for that time of day and after some rest managed to go and have a look around. We were right in the heart of the city and in the local park nearby was a world food festival. We set out to taste the world and started off well when we got a lovely samosa – next stall was a Russian beer tent where we ran into some people we had met in Nha Trang – so the tour of the world pretty much stopped there! But had a good day with them and we managed to go to another stall where Aileen got a nice Vietnamese pancake – finally figured out how to eat them properly too!!

Planned to meet the crew we had been drinking with that day at their hostel later as they had a bar – while walking up the stairs a rat ran down and over Aileens feet- GROSS! Told a girl we met on the stairs and she was not perturbed “well at least he was running out”! Glad we are ‘flashpacking’ and not slumming it.