This is JBR Part 1 - Ho Chi Minh City (Part 2 is Mui Ne - to follow later)

Wel’d booked Vietnam Airlines flight scheduled to arrive in Ho Chi Minh City at 4.30pm and planned to collect our visas at the counter, get in the pre-booked limo and go to the hotel. We planned to have dinner and book some tours for the following two days.

BUT, the flight was continually delayed, until finally we were told at 5pm that the plane would not be taking off and no other plane was available so another plane had to come from Vietnam!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and it would be 11pm before we departed.
Pity the poor devils who had connecting flights which they (naturally) missed and others who had package tours booked.....heaven only knows what happened to their arrangements. Lots of unhappy people I can tell you.
Soooooooo after all that, we arrived in HCM at 1.30 a.m. and arrived at hotel at 2.30 a.m. !!!!!!!!!!! Not a good start.

On the drive from the airport we’d noticed how clean the streets were - no rubbish anywhere - and no smell from drains a la Bangkok. We later saw why..... all rubbish is bagged and put on the footpath for collection by the garbage trucks. Ladies with straw brooms sweep the roads and footpaths throughout the day and evening.... how they don't get killed by motorbikes is beyond me.... and the gutters and footpaths are hosed down every night.

Motorbikes are absolutely everywhere and there are few traffic lights so traffic is constant - hundreds of thousands of motorbikes at any given time + some taxis, private cars and buses. These are all over the road forming a wall of traffic.
Of course this means that crossing the road is an art form. And a very risky business.
Our hotel was on a main road and from the window we watched the pedestrians crossing so we could see how it was done..... step off kerb SLOWLY, wait for a suitable gap in the traffic (HA!) so that bikeriders see you and can anticipate what you're going to do - i.e. walk onto the road, straight into the line of traffic!!! and proceed across, watching tentatively all the time.....then they veer behind, around or in front of you. That's the general idea.
If you don't stop, your moves are able to be anticipated. Under NO circumstances should you retreat and head back to the safety of the footpath because then those who are veering behind you have to readjust and might hit you. If I’d been by myself, I think I'd still be standing on a footpath somewhere.
We stepped off the footpath into the flow of traffic. Very nerve-wracking. But all the bikeriders did as they were supposed to do. Still daunting. But when I saw workers pulling carts of food across six lanes of chaotic traffic, I realised what a squib I am!
Being in a car isn't all that much better because Rafferty's Rules apply on the road..... looks like chaos with bikes and cars just cutting across each other to turn left or right..... roundabouts have traffic coming from all directions and going everywhere - no such thing as giving way to the right or anything like that.... just press ahead with vigilance and caution, but somehow it sorts out. And to the constant beep beep of car horns advising bikeriders to get over!!

Another thing you notice is the industriousness of the people – wherever you look you see men and women carrying food or fruit and vegetables in baskets held by long poles across their shoulders or pulling big carts of food through the traffic. People also come along the streets with trays of goods for sale - sunglasses, lighters, caps, fruit etc. etc.
Construction workers and window cleaners work at great heights with little or no safety harnesses.
Unfortunately, poverty is rife and it seems there is no welfare net to cater for the aged or the disabled... they have to either work or beg.

Our hotel was reasonably good..... I'd give it 3 1/2 with prices well above that level (because decent hotels are very expensive for a developing country).
Our room was newly renovated and nicely done but small. We had a view of the pool and the street below. It was fairly centrally located - just had to cross the road (!!!!) and a few minutes' walk to the Backpacker Area.... full of bars, restaurants, travel agencies and interesting shops.

We went to this area for lunch, then got a taxi up to the sedate end of town with the very high-end hotels and department stores. This area has lots of French colonial type buildings. We strolled around a department store and bought some ceramics from a little store out in the foyer, then had ice cream at a little patisserie across the road.
We went back to the backpacker zone and had pizza and spaghetti at "Good Morning Vietnam".... very good. Food + a beer + a coke was about 12USD.
That's another plus..............apart from hotels, this place is soooooooooo cheap. Taxis,food, drinks, shopping - your money goes a long way. 1 USD = about 15000 Vietnamese Dong - a bit difficult to work with all those noughts at first, but it gets easier with practice.

Due to the delayed flight, we had to book our tours next day, so virtually lost a day of exploring time and had to make choices. We decided to give Mekong Delta a miss and just see the Cu Chi Tunnels. Even though it's in the south, many Viet Cong used these tunnels during the war.... they lived underground and came up to stage attacks.... they even had medical centres and military workshops down there.

We booked this tour with Sinh Café – travelled by bus for around 5 USD per person (much better than the prices quoted for a private car) + admission fees (around another 5USD ). We were given bottles of water on the bus and had a tour guide on board.

We were shown a propaganda film about the "American Imperialists" and how "they wanted to destroy our land" and then we were shown the tiny hidey holes concealed by a wooden trapdoor – a few in group went in and out. We also saw the booby traps that were commonplace..... camouflaged pits containing bamboo stakes or metal spikes to impale anyone unfortunate enough to fall in there. Gruesome.
We then went into the tunnels. Although they'd been widened for foreigners, they were still narrow and as black as pitch. And hot. We had to bend down to get through and they went down deeper as we went along. At one stage I just slid on my backside because I had no idea where the floor was going. I just wanted to get out of there. Fortunately there was a fork in the tunnel - one way dark/one way light. I headed for the light and had to climb up about 40 rungs of a metal ladder.
If you're doing this tour, I recommend you leave the backpack at your hotel - you don’t need the added bulk or weight in that confined space.
All in all a very interesting day - makes it pretty clear why the north Vietnamese won the war.

Any comments on Sinh Café or any other tour organisers that you used during your trip?

Which area in HCMC would you recommend to stay in. I'm a bit wary of backpacker ghettos but don't much like the ritzy end of the scale either.

Look forward to the next segment.

Hi Kimbo,
Great read, thanks for taking the time to share the experience. Crossing the road sounds terrible, I have enough trouble in Thailand, but can usually find some traffic lights (not that the drivers take a lot of notice of them, but gives the pedestrians a bit more of a chance)
Michelle

Thanks Kimbo, I enjoyed your report. Where did you stay in HCMC? We are finding it hard to decide on a place as there really only seems to be Backpacker type places or 5 star, anything in between generally has bad reviews

Yes, that seems to be the case in HCMC - either very expensive or low budget places. We chose the Metropole - wanted a Senior Deluxe room but that was unavailable and I'd read that some other room categories had no window (!! - apparently quite common in Vietnam) so we opted for Business Deluxe - newly renovated, nicely decorated (but small) and overlooking the pool. The windows were double-glazed so we didn't hear any traffic noise at all even though the hotel has a main road front and back. This room cost 140 USD a night, including an ok buffet breakfast. We booked it through saigonhotel-linkdotcom and paid this booking agency in advance with c/c. This hotel was located jsut a few minutes' walk from the interesting 'backpacker area' and a short taxi trip to the upmarket part of District 1.

Thanks for the very interesting report Kimbo. I had a similar trip to you but the planes were pretty much on time. We stayed at a half star hotel in Hanoi (-my rating) but clean and good with adequate air con and basic breakfast. A family run place and they couln't do enough for us. But run down. Our guide who we hired was a freelance person told us the hotel we stayed at was more for the locals than western travellers. In Saigon we stayed at the Best Western all Suites hotel which was fine and food good. Not too expensive but in need of a good overhaul A great location for us and easy walking distance to the markets. We found a good dressmaker in one of the back streets and the work was good and cheap.- No english but we got by and the dressamker delivered the goods we expected. We ahd a great time and will go back.

Hey Kimbo, thanks for that report, one day we will have to try Vietnam (if we can only get out of Thailand and Cambodia)
Cathy

__________________
http://www.cathyandgarystravelpages.com