Saigon

I read quite a few forum articles on Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as I prefer to call it, before we set off on the trip, but nothing, not anything could prepare you for the chaos that is Saigon traffic. We were transferred to the hotel during the rush hour and were met with wall to wall motorcycles with up to four people on board. There are apparently no rules and driving on the pavement is standard and stopping at traffic lights optional.
There are various recommendations for crossing the road but essentially once started you must never stop, the motorcycles will swerve round you as long as you continue in motion, Ok in theory but putting it to the test is unnerving.

A trip to the Behn Trahn market was also eventful with all the sellers trying to get your attention, but I did manage to haggle a real leather belt for $7 which was probably too much but I was happy enough.

The city itself varies between good areas and bad areas and on the city tour we had a guide called Yu and it took me back to the old joke ‘Hey you’—‘How you know my name’. For those of you who can remember the iconic photos of the American withdrawal from Saigon in the early seventies it was like déjà vu seeing the building now called the Palace of reunification and the plinth on the roof where helicopters were evacuating the last to leave.

The food here is excellent and we managed to find a Beerhaus called Hoa Vien which I had seen on the net, but it was packed with locals who apparently love their beer.
We had a really good trip to the Mekong Delta even though it took a four hour round trip in a van, jumped onto a Sampan and visited the floating market and places where they make all kinds of sweet stuff with rice and coconuts. The restaurant we called in to for lunch was raised on stilts over the river and the starter was Elephant Ear Fish which was wrapped in rice paper with cucumber and mint very similar to Peking Duck style.

I also found another Beerhaus called the Lion Brewery which was decked out like a Munich beer hall, the beer was very good, even Sheila liked it.

Kuala Lumpur

We eventually arrived at the hotel in KL at 4.30 PM and went out to eat what was breakfast for us. It is a lot more expensive here than the last time we visited, especially alcohol, at around £5-6 a pint. There also seems to be a lot of Chinese around here that are a bit light on their feet.
The weather is really draining, high humidity and temps around 32C, how we managed in Oman for so long I do not know or is it maybe we are just getting older and the jet lag is compounding the problem.
A visit to the Central Market for reflexology which was very cheap at £5 an hour and there was a fish spa where you put your feet in a pool and the fish nibble at them and remove dead skin cells. I decided not to inflict Sheila’s feet on them as I could envisage them all floating to the surface when she put them in.
We are off to Vietnam tomorrow which means the past 5 days have flown past.

Overview

I was not too sure whether to write a blog for this tour after the epic that was the NZOZ blog but I must admit that I enjoyed writing it and there are so many beer encounters that necessitate a detailed description.I will try to slip in a few travel details in between.
We leave UK on 21st Jan and arrive in Kuala Lumpur the following day, changing aircraft in Doha, Qatar. Our itinerary includes 5 days in Malaysia, 13 days in Vietnam, 17 days in Thailand, 2 I don't know where yet days and 3 days in Singapore.
After the sub arctic weather we have experienced lately I can definitely say we are looking forward to leaving.