One stupid thing about this part of the tour, was that we picked up 2 sets of new people, 2 days apart, but at the same hotel. But I'll speak of Saigon/Hochiminh City now, and various things I did there, besides the War Museum.
So, 1/2 the people and local tour guides call the first big city we were in - Saigon, and the other half call it the new name, Hochiminh City. That was confusing, but so was traffic.
Oh my goodness....motorbikes and beeping. I reckon that there was at least one motorbike for every 2 people in the city, if not more. Crossing streets was a nightmare. Though, the driving rules were similar to the States' flow of traffic (drivers on the left side of the car, driving on the right side of the road).... no one seemed to follow that rule. Through out Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and then Vietnam the rule of thumb was... drive where ever you can fit, and beep whenever you want or while passing on either side. But, Hochiminh City was the worst for this, I really had my heart jumping every time I crossed the street, which I really tried not to do.
The night markets in HC were pretty good, this is where I picked up a couple souvenirs, but only because I was mailing stuff to the States within a day or two. People got fake bags, and scarves and whatever they wanted here too. It was impressive.
So night one - we picked up 8 people, 2 couples, a sister/brother & best friend set, and one random guy. They came to the home stay with us.
Night three - same hotel, same time, we picked up - 3 girls that were friends already, 2 girls that were friends already, 1 couple, and 1 extra girl.
And from the original group there were - 11 girls and 4 guys, (including 2 couples, and a pair of sisters) - continuing on.
This tour as a whole was a lot... a lot of females. Which worked out well, but 24 females together at a time, there is always a little drama. But all in all, it worked.
Night 3's dinnerr was at a beer garden, where we ordered raw meat, and cooked it on the fire in the middle of the table... Asian Melting Pot? sans a pot, add a grill. I enjoy the meal, it kept me active, and felt like I was cooking for myself instead of eating out every meal for 2 months... oh wait, that is what I am doing! :-)
As we woke up the next day, I was happy to be leaving Hochiminh City. There had to be better cities to Vietnam besides motorbikes, honking, and near death experiences. (Though, yes, that home stay I told you about in the previous entry was a nice experience)
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Uploaded and sent from an iPad that's exploring Southeast Asia. Please try not to mind the typos and spelling errors. Autocorrect does some funny things.
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