Day 95 - Ho Chi Minh

Chào ban from Ho chi Minh (Saigon), Viet Nam. My second day here now (the first day didn't count - I slept for most of it)

I arrived here yesterday morning feeling awful. I had heard that the singapore terminal was heaven; swimming pool, restrooms, cinema etc., so had decided to save money on the taxi and room and sleep in the terminal. Bad idea. What I didn't realise that there is a whole seperate terminal (budget terminal) for Tiger Airways, the budget airline I had booked a flight with, and it didn't have 24 hr check-in. I tried to sleep in the basic, brightly lit entrance room, but the upright seats were uncomfortable, and the guy on the cleaning machine chugged by every 15 minutes. The flight was a quick one, 1 1/2 hours, and we touched down in Ho Chi Minh at about 8am their time. It was baking hot, and after Singapore very grubby. The first thing I did was go to the cash machine and become an instant millionaire - dong (yes, I know) is the official currency of Viet Nam, and there is approximately 30,000 dong to every British pound. Next I got on the bus into the city, which conveniently stops around the corner from my hostel; Yellow House Hotel.

The hotel is sandwiched between tourist shops, restaurants and other hotels. Free internet, and staff are lovely - they let me use a single room to have a hot shower whilst they prepared my bed in the dorm. Once my bed was ready I crashed out and slept until 6pm, when I briefly went out for pizza, then came back and slept all the way through to 8am this morning. My dorm is really a small room with three beds crammed into it. It's a bit cramped, but cheap and has air-conditioning so I can escape the heat (it's not really that bad, only about 32°, but it is not nice sleeping at this temperature combined with the humidity here).

Today I booked a trip to the Mekong and another to the Cu Chi tunnels. The rest of the time has been spent shopping. It's not like that - it's not for me, it's all souveniers! Actually, I lie, I also brought a new day pack for less than a fiver. After 3 months of lugging round inconvenient shoulder bags, I've finally seen the light. My bag is a posh North Face one with a million little pockets and clips. Why did I not get one sooner?