Thursday 28 June
There must be some sort of system for being allocated a taxi at Ho Chi Minh City Station, but we don't know what it is. There are lots of empty taxis there, and some men who look like porters in blue uniforms, who seem to be matching train passengers to taxis, but for some reason they don't seem to want to know us. We try to hail one of the empty taxis, but the drivers shake their heads; we've never come across this situation before. Usually taxi drivers are falling over each other to get us in their taxi.
Finally a driver takes pity on us and takes us, by metered charge, to our hotel. We know he hasn't overcharged us as we were told by someone on the train roughly how much our taxi should cost. We've found an honest taxi driver in Saigon!
The hostel is cheap and cheerful, though our welcome isn't anything like the one we got at the Jade Hotel. However, the staff seem nice; we're on the third floor and we're grateful that there's a lift. Our room is large, with a double and a single bed in it, a fridge, a kettle, some coffee (no tea, but we have our own supply Lipton's Yellow Teabags) and a ceiling fan as well as airconditioning. I try to ignore the slightly musty, stale smell emanating from the ensuite bathroom. The sheets appear clean though have holes in them,
We're hot and tired and hungry; Reg persuades me to leave showering until after we've had something to eat, as a restaurant near our hotel is advertising Irish breakfast, which appears to be similar to the English version, but without the bacon. There are sausages and baked beans though. And the black tea is in large mugs!
On the way back to the hotel we buy a large rucksack for on the plane. We are able to reduce the price quite a lot by bartering.
After a rest in our room, we book up a tour to see the Cu Chi tunnels (more in tomorrow's blog), and also book our seats on the 7.00 am bus on Saturday, which will take us from Saigon to Phnom Pehn, in Cambodia. The journey will take 6 hours. We've loved our time in Vietnam, and will be sorry to leave.
We venture out again and decide to browse around the large covered market in Saigon, which sells everything from fruit to jewellery, and handbags to knic-knacks. It's a busy bustling place, and an extremely hard sell, with many stallholders calling out for us to buy their goods, and one stallholder physically barring my way when I tried to leave her stall!
We stop for a cold drink, and like the look of the restaurant menu, and decide to eat there . I have delicious Vietnamese pork and shrimp spring rolls dipped in a sauce, while Reg has a fried rice. On the way back to the hostel, we wander through a large park, where some men and a young girl are playing a game we've never seen before - foot-badminton, using a weighted long-feathered shuttlecock instead of a ball, Reg is intrigued and we both enjoy watching the game. Later we come across some women and a man playing this new game, and Reg is itching to join in; he hangs around and they invite him to join. After a few minutes, he's actually getting quite good at it.
There must be some sort of system for being allocated a taxi at Ho Chi Minh City Station, but we don't know what it is. There are lots of empty taxis there, and some men who look like porters in blue uniforms, who seem to be matching train passengers to taxis, but for some reason they don't seem to want to know us. We try to hail one of the empty taxis, but the drivers shake their heads; we've never come across this situation before. Usually taxi drivers are falling over each other to get us in their taxi.
Finally a driver takes pity on us and takes us, by metered charge, to our hotel. We know he hasn't overcharged us as we were told by someone on the train roughly how much our taxi should cost. We've found an honest taxi driver in Saigon!
The hostel is cheap and cheerful, though our welcome isn't anything like the one we got at the Jade Hotel. However, the staff seem nice; we're on the third floor and we're grateful that there's a lift. Our room is large, with a double and a single bed in it, a fridge, a kettle, some coffee (no tea, but we have our own supply Lipton's Yellow Teabags) and a ceiling fan as well as airconditioning. I try to ignore the slightly musty, stale smell emanating from the ensuite bathroom. The sheets appear clean though have holes in them,
We're hot and tired and hungry; Reg persuades me to leave showering until after we've had something to eat, as a restaurant near our hotel is advertising Irish breakfast, which appears to be similar to the English version, but without the bacon. There are sausages and baked beans though. And the black tea is in large mugs!
On the way back to the hotel we buy a large rucksack for on the plane. We are able to reduce the price quite a lot by bartering.
After a rest in our room, we book up a tour to see the Cu Chi tunnels (more in tomorrow's blog), and also book our seats on the 7.00 am bus on Saturday, which will take us from Saigon to Phnom Pehn, in Cambodia. The journey will take 6 hours. We've loved our time in Vietnam, and will be sorry to leave.
We venture out again and decide to browse around the large covered market in Saigon, which sells everything from fruit to jewellery, and handbags to knic-knacks. It's a busy bustling place, and an extremely hard sell, with many stallholders calling out for us to buy their goods, and one stallholder physically barring my way when I tried to leave her stall!
We stop for a cold drink, and like the look of the restaurant menu, and decide to eat there . I have delicious Vietnamese pork and shrimp spring rolls dipped in a sauce, while Reg has a fried rice. On the way back to the hostel, we wander through a large park, where some men and a young girl are playing a game we've never seen before - foot-badminton, using a weighted long-feathered shuttlecock instead of a ball, Reg is intrigued and we both enjoy watching the game. Later we come across some women and a man playing this new game, and Reg is itching to join in; he hangs around and they invite him to join. After a few minutes, he's actually getting quite good at it.
No comments:
Post a Comment