Ahhhh......welcome Ho Chi Minh City! :) Quite a change from the calm Island Koh Lanta....but a very welcomed one! Very interesting fact - the ride from the airport to the city center is done within 30min...but as soon as you leave the carpark you ARE practically in the city! Very convenient. Arrival time was about 21.00..
And what do we notice? Although we came from Thailand where there are already quite a number of people using motobikes as their prefered vehicle to get around - here in Vietnam the number is even higher! LOADS of them swarming around using their horns to give them a voice in the battle against the car drivers.
With that impression, we checked-in into our hotel: Saigon Mini Hotel 5, but before we were greeted by reception, we had a nice welcome from a HUGE rat outside the hotel. Lets just say that Saigon is not as clean as......Switzerland.
The hotel is in the center of district 1 (very very central). We picked this hotel as it is recommended highly by TripAdvisor (a fantastic tool for people who like travelling...) and it turned out that all the praise for this place is really true! A wecloming and helpful reception desk, tiney but neat room, free wi-fi (very convenient to write Blog), etc.
Tiney shower in tiney room..
After dinner of our first Noodle-soup (Rice noodles & Pork) with our local friend Laura (former employee at Tiffins), we went to check out the neigbourhood of our hotel! :)
Luckily we didn't have to walk a big distance until we found the first interesting bar to have a beer in..! It's pretty mad how many neon lights there are around you....as well as the noise from the motorcycles, bars, sellers, cars.....this city is busy!
View from our table to the Bar opposite..
Hmmm...Looking at the menu for drinks one quickly forgets about being thirsty with prices for beer rocketing to over 35,000 Dong (local currency!). Puuuhh...having alread had second thoughts on the beer (*sniff*) we managed to recall that 1,000 Dong is only worth about hmmm....let me calculate??? about 5 Rappen...i.e. the beer costs sth around CHF 2! *phew*
So..nothing in the way to enjoy a first beer here in Saigon and watch the busy streets of this City. Unbelievable how many people try to sell something on the streets passing by the bar (e.g. dried squid, cigarettes, lottery tickets etc.). There are also of course, the occassional "he-shes" and other local girls (or guys?) all hanging around looking for Western men. Don't get scared about the freeky colours....Mishell played around with the settings of the camera!
Opposite the bar another road-stall was selling some yummy barbeque-pork... *slurrp*
Got the wires right? (view of Saigon at 2am....when we retired from our first night)
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