Good Bye Vietnam!

My night bus journey from Nha Trang to Saigon was surprisingly comfortable as the bus was near empty which meant  I was able to roll my seat fully back & stretch out! The first item on my to do list when I arrived in Saigon & secured a room was to make a bee line for the Quantas office as my ticket had me scheduled to fly out of Singapore to Auckland that Friday. A few hours later and a lot of reshuffling of dates I finally got it all sorted so am now flying from Singapore to Perth on 30th Oct!

The weather during my stay in Saigon was pretty crap - pretty much rained every day and for a lot more than the usual hour. It made a change wandering about in summer clothes & an umbrella over my head! It didn't take me long to get used to the hectic moto traffic in Saigon even though it was slightly crazier than what I had experience in Hanoi.

So it's goodbye to crazy moto drivers (carrying everything from live pigs to kitchen tables to bags of rice to stacks of laundry on the back while whizzing through traffic),

I had fully intended to make a trip to the Mekong Delta for a day or two while here but as the weather was so crap I decided against it - something for me to come back and see. I did however take in a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels which was well worth it. It takes a little over an hour to get there and the tour itself is just under 2 hours. Getting into the tunnels (even though they have been made larger to fit us westerners) is a scary experience! I also visited the War Remnants Museum after which was also good to see.

Apart from that my time in Saigon was spent wandering around the streets aimlessy and doing some more clothes shopping! Stumble across this silk store and went in for a look! Came out  2 hours later having ordered 5 dresses - one of which is for a friends wedding when I get home next year (figured I will have no money left then so best to buy now)! I came back less than 4 hours later and all were pretty much ready and they were rushing about making last minute alterations so that I could leave for the airport a few hours later - it is amazing what work they can do in such little time! I did make a visit to the rooftop bar of the Sheraton Hotel for a glass of vino with one of the guys on my Cu Chi tour which was a treat! The view was incredible  & I could have stayed there all night only the bar was slightly over our back packers budget :(

After 4 weeks travelling from North to South it is time to leave and although I am looking forward to the next part of the journey I will really miss Vietnam. As amazing as the country itself is, it was also the people that I met and travelled with while here that made it - they know who they are if they read this!! So it's goodbye to crazy moto drivers (carrying everything from live pigs to kitchen tables to bags of rice to stacks of laundry on the back while whizzing through traffic), to pho, to 2000 dong bia hoi beer and a lot lot more!