Have spent two days in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City and am heading out tonight on a sleeper bus. We are trying to get to Hoi Ann but the bus there is over 20 hours, so we are breaking it up by spending a day on the beach in Nha Trang.
Saigon is a HUGE compared to Cambodia and Laos! There are thousands of motorcycles/scooters on the roads and is bustling with people. It has taken some training to be able to cross the streets with all of the insane traffic because there is never a break in the cars/motos: you have to walk at a slow, controlled pace across the road and the motos and cars will just avoid you. The worst thing is to stop/hesitate or pull back or backtrack out of the way (which is your natural reaction when a motorcycle is speeding directly toward you at 80km/hr), because then the drivers cant anticipate where you will be and they honk and you swerve and it is chaos! Its really crazy having motos whizzing past you 2 inches away! Some tourists actually get helped walking across the street by friendly vietnemese people....LOL not gonna lie, I had to be helped once. I was staring at the busiest roundabout i had seen in Saigon yet and was thinking there is NO WAY i am getting across this and an old man came beside me and said, "you just go....come on" and walked with me across. I actually felt a moto brush my arm and couldnt help laughing histarically at the other side. Who knew that walking into Vietnamese traffic was a better high than skydiving!
Have spent the last two days walking around seeing the sights and just enjoying culture and food! Went to the war museum and saw the notre dam cathedral and old school post office, walked through ALOT of markets and spent the night perched on a little plastic stool drinking Saigon beer. I have great pics of everything but the computers here cant read my camera so posting them will have to wait for later :(
As an update about me, a couple days ago I accepted a job at Chinook rafting, so will be living in Canmore for the summer guiding :) I'll be driving there the beginning of June...If anyone needs a ride, let me know! I would also appreciate any hook ups with cheap accomodation out there...it will be a bit of a headache i think trying to arrange it from here...
Have also been thinking about extending my trip and heading to the phillipines to do some more diving and see some whale sharks.....have ditched heading to nepal because, for some reason, the flights there from beijing are insanely expensive. I will do another trip that includes nepal and india later....
gotta run to the bus...
Anna
