My optimism that Vietnam has lots to offer was almost instantly rewarded! Once I had recovered from the food poisoning, we flew from Phu Quoc to Saigon. We have made a new rule (thanks to the influence of Simon Sawyer!) that all accommodation we book should have a hostelworld review of over 90%. With this in mind, we booked into a dorm room at the ‘Town House 50’, which is listed as one of the Guardians Top 10 places to stay in Saigon. It really is very nice, and I can highly reccommend it. It is clean, spacious, has very friendly and helpful staff, has hot showers, is in a great location and provides a tasty free breakfast.

A street food vendor takes shelter from the rain

We decided to take a break from hitting the ‘must see’ sites, and instead just wondered around the city. There is so much delicious and insanely cheap street food on offer, so most of our time was spent on a sort of culinary tour. This was made much easier after exploring the superb Vietnam Coracle website (a must visit site for anyone travelling in Vietnam), which explained what some of the common street foods are. We also followed some other suggestions from this site, and visited a couple of the many great coffee shops.

Some ‘interesting’ meat options were available…

On the second afternoon, Graham stayed in the hostel to catch up on some internet stuff (although there was a convenient power cut which meant he had to go out and enjoy some 30 p beers instead!) while I explored some of the city’s markets and shops. I enjoyed wondering around the Ben Thanh market, which is filled with tiny stalls heaped high with all sorts of goods. There is an area for clothes, shoes, food, jewellery, cosmetics, house stuff…its amazing. I tried some shoes on, but they almost all cater to the tiny Asian feet so I didn’t have much success. I then headed to ‘shoe street’ and spent some time wondering in and out of the many shoe shops. After a couple of hours I decided to head towards home.

Battleships and Beer – a great way to spend a rainy day

“Would you like some stew with your herbs?”

The roads in Saigon are insane. They are jam-packed with scooters, motorbikes, cars and bicycles. Most travel with the flow of traffic, and some go against. The pavement often just acts as an extra lane for motorbikes. No-one ever stops at a junction, and the scooters almost never stop for a red light. The only way to cross the road is to step out and walk confidently to the other side, without changing direction or speed. Somehow the traffic just flows around you. However, on one particular crossing my trusty flip flops unexpectedly broke. I was left hobbling across the road at an unpredictable speed – I have no idea how I made it uninjured! Luckily I was only a few minutes from shoe street so I could invest in a replacement pair straight away.

Saigon – for all your Belgium Beer cravings…

After the fun of the day we decided to head to a rooftop bar to see Saigon in all its evening splendour. The Sky Bar is a rather posh bar on the top floor of the AB tower. It offers spectacular views over the city, and very tasty cocktails, which are much more affordable during the extended happy hour. There is quite a strict dress code, but it is worth the effort, and we very much enjoyed relaxing and watching the city life unfold. From above, the mopeds looked like twinkling fairy lights lighting up the roads, and they moved around like a swarm. In fact, what is the collective term for a group of mopeds???

The Sky Bar

Kylie sips yet another roof-top cocktail

View from the Sky Bar

Saigon is a city bursting with energy and life and I loved it!