Sai Gon

Up early enough to see Olivia go  the day off to Po Po's for the day with Fang.  #1 son took me to Sentral and then I was off on my side trip, to Vietnam, well Ho Chi Minh City actually.

I left from the new LCCT terminal KLIA2, opened just after I left last October.  It is huge.  A shopping mall with an airport attached, and pretty much all Air Asia.

Good flight to HCMC, aka Saigon.  The visa process is a bit random but it didn't taek that long and then I was off on the 152, the airport bus. It cost 5000 VND, that's 17p.  There are 33,000 (in round numbers) Dong to the pound so you very quickly become a millionaire.

The bus dropped me off at the central bus station and I walked to the hotel.  Not far but I was very glad of the 2 helpings of cool welcome drink when I got there.

The hotel I'd chosen via Agoda is right on the riverside, which is reminscent of Phnom Penh but not as scenic.  There is a wasteground opposite, an about to be building site.  However, there is a rooftop pool and bar.

I went for a stroll picking up a coffee and a cake on the way (that was lunch) and then came back for a swim over the night lights.  It's dark here at 6.15, we're an hour behind KL.  I found a decent (mentioned in LP) Vietnamese restaurant, Number 13, in the next street had some food and went for another walk.  

It was the 4oth anniversary of the leaving of the US on 30 April so there are banners and slogans on all the streets celebrating this.  Apart from that HCMC is very Westernised.  The usual western companies and banks and the signs of foreign investment, a new metro bankrolled by the Japanese.

Whereas KL has cars and gridlock and Phnom Penh has tuk tuks, Saigon has motorbikes and mopeds, 7 million of them and they don't stop for pedestrians and rarely for red lights.  Crossing the road becomes a game all of its own.  I crossed the road to the riverside and thought I'd never get back.  the trick is to walk out steadily, and just not look.

This is the Opera House, still showing signs of its French heritage.