Uneasy Riders

We were leaving Hue at lunchtime for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) so after breakfast we took a stroll along the river. Word is coming through now of how the virus is affecting the country:  cruises on Halong Bay have been suspended after someone showed symptoms on one of the boats and we've been requested to wear masks in busy public places, including the airport when we got there.

We arrived in Saigon mid afternoon. Our hotel is right in the heart of the city and the traffic is even more hectic than the other cities we've visited. We grabbed a takeaway traditional Vietnamese baguette from a nearby bakery to tide us over until dinner. They 're a mixture of French (baguette, ham, pate, salad) and Vietnamese (rice wine dressing, lots of chillies) and they are delicious.

This evening's entertainment was a tour of the city on the back of a vintage Vespa scooter. We'd assumed it would be a 30 minute trip around the centre but it turned out to be a whole evening high speed tour of the nightspots with all food and drink included.  A street bar (2 cocktails) was gollowed by a fish restaurant (crab claws, clams in broth with noodles and frogs legs, a couple of beers) another restaurant ( a local omelette type delicacy, a meat main course with more beers - who's counting now?) then a cabaret style nightclub and finally a disco with live band (more cocktails). The journeys between each venue involved high octane convoy trips in the heavy Saigon traffic  through the brightly lit streets (they seem to have the city centre streets permanently set up with Christmas style decorations). We were a pretty merry, if slightly queasy, band of travellers who returned to the hotel just before midnight!

Fortunately we were being driven by highly experienced drivers from the company who organise these jaunts but the blip of Tess and me was taken before we were relegated to the pillion.