Uncle Ho says eat Pho Bo

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Just three days in Saigon, so short, but we lapped it up. It seems to have everything you could want from a city; museums, bars, a beautiful old quarter with throbbing streets and alleys interweaving through the french colonial architecture. Sure its a little dirty, hectic, crowded, but its a city in Asia, it has to be, but the pulse and passion of the city was just what we needed after so much rural lying about, so we dived right in.

Trudging through the old quarter loaded like pack mules we stop at a bar/hotel and find a room with a friendly lady who seems to moonlight as the local brewer of one of Vietnam's finest traditions - Bia Hoi. Translated literally as "fresh beer" its a Czech pilsener brewed and distributed by micro breweries all over Vietnam. After so much bottled beer it is frosty and delicious and we grab a litre and find a seat amongst the all male, all vietnamese patrons to do some honest drinking. To say the beer is cheap is to miss the point, ice cubes to go with it could double the cost. For the price of a cheap pint in London you can but eighteen litres here - Well  I've never drunk 18 litres of beer but give it a reasonably good go - we end up having a pretty early night!

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Lottie scrapes the pair of us out of bed in the morning and we head for a hangover busting breakfast of Pho Chay, flat white rice noodle soup with heaps of fresh herbs and greens, chilli and tamarind pastes to season.... yummy. All right, now we've really arrived - Vietnam has the best food in SE Asia, twin this with practically free icy beer and hot sultry monsoon nights and we're in heaven. Lottie leads the tour tour today and we start off at an amazingly Arnedale like chinese market then head straight on to the far more interesting Museum of Ho Chi Minh City for a long overdue fix of culture. Set in the former royal palace the museum is pretty fascinating - I'm a sucker for faded display cabinets holding irrecognisable oddities, especially when they are labelled only in Vietnamese, and we spend hours wandering through the crumbling building, unsure of where the museum starts or stops - kind of like the old Horniman Museum I miss so much....(overstuffed Walrus not withstanding)

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After a predictably wonderful lunch Lottie's walking tour continues to the War Remnants Museum - sadly they recently changed the name from its previous snappy title "Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes" - much more to the point  I thought. Housed within lies a wealth of informationabout the brutality of the french, american and chinese empires and detailed accounts of munitions despatched, chemicals used, civilians killed and raped and so forth. Really brutal stuff, but for once my empire gets off lightly, which makes a change. Later we stop into a socialist propaganda store to stock up on some fantastic posters for friends and family. Billboards and posters still dot the country often in the most incongruous locations encouraging citizens to "Grow more cabbage", or "Keep farming chickens to increase the wealth of our beautiful socialist republic". Often they are heavily stylized line drawings or stencils using psychedelic colours and patterns, and pretty amazing to look at. We go to the Sheraton for a sundowner but find we could buy our own brewery for the price of a mojito, also we are not really happy in 'international' surroundings anymore having forgotten how to use a knife and fork so we check out the view and then eat in the street for less than a pound.

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The next day having worn out our feet and run out of head space for more socialist propaganda we make a trip to the post office (the most impressive building in Saigon), post off some b'day presents and take a light morning tea at the Continental hotel - setting for Graham Greenes "The Quiet American". Sometimes you don't always have a good time when travelling - I know working people you're groaning "how can you not?", but its true, somedays are just a bore. But this day was a special one,  one of the best. So we went to the post office , breakfast at the continental, then fresh spring rolls for lunch, short of ideas and energy we then spent the afternoon in a french coffee house sipping deliciously strong and sweet Ca Phe Vietnam and paintstripper-like vietnamese brandy, and sat back watching Saigon do its thing and listening to the ex pats chatting over their Pastis. Shortly the rain arrives and within an hour the street is a river 2 feet deep complete with swimming, splashing children having been sent outside for their bath. Beautiful, just a great day to be in Saigon.