Ho Chi MEAN City

The last night of our tour brought us to Ho Chi Minh City. The city was extremely quite when we arrived due to the Chinese New Year. The New Year was on Sunday 14th February, we arrived on Wednesday 17th February, and we were told that the city would not be back in full swing until at least Saturday 20th February. That's a heck of a lot of time off for New Year's.

Nevertheless, we were in high spirits after a fascinating time spent in Cambodia. Our group headed out for our final shin-dig. After a night of fun we decided to return to our hotel. Maeve & I were crossing the street (just outside our hotel) arm-in-arm, when a man on a motorcycle whizzed by us and pulled my bag from me. He yanked the strap so hard the bag snapped off me and sent me in a spin. We watched as the man drove off with my bag in hand, drama, drama, drama!! It was a really shocking thing to have happened and it really shook us up. My camera was in the bag so I was devastated to have all my pictures taken from me. Thankfully I had saved some pictures to Facebook so all is not lost. After talking to reception we realised things could have been a whole lot worse, she told us a story of a lady who had been dragged down the street by a motorcycle thief. We also met a man who had been pushed to the ground and had his tooth front teeth knocked out from a similar attack. Stolen stuff is better than broken Amanda or Maeve!!

So dusting ourselves off and picking ourselves us, in typical pixi-minx style, we decided to visit some of the sites. Ho Chi Minh City is quite cosmopolitan. There are some beautiful buildings and lush green parks. The traffic is bonkers, as pedestrians we are modes of transport in our own right. It's a game of dodge the moped, which are the predominant vehicles in use. Unlike Cambodia, it's compulsory to wear a helmet whilst driving a moped or motorbike. The helmets are quite cartoonish. Some of them are very Tin-Tin-esque or Penelope-Pitsop-like, there are even helmets in the shape of hats (a la Mary Poppins). All these quirky attributes helped us warm to Vietnam and we now leave with some fond memories (to hell with the Ho Chi MEAN motorcylce driver)!!