Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City

Saigon turned out to be Dave's favourite city in South East Asia (so far), though I think I still prefer Bangkok and Vientaine. The traffic there is every bit as crazy as rumour has it, and really has to be seen to be believed. On busy roads there is a separate lane for motorbikes, and it is necessary to cross the road in stages. Sometimes I admit I just looked at the pavement, held my breath and let Dave drag me across, my fingers clenched around his wrist...In parts of the city where the traffic was particularly jammed or there was a one-way system we also saw (and dodged) motorbikes which suddenly cut away from the road to zoom along the pavement instead.

We stayed in the central backpacker district, on a busy boulevard called Pham Ngu Lao.It is a street which combines glitz and chaos, yet narrow alleys full of character wind off it in every direction. The area had some of the neon insanity of Khao San Road, but somehow didn't feel quite so touristy. The locals around the area seemed to be going about their daily lives as well as selling things to tourists, which is not the case at Khao San.

Our second day in Saigon we spent wandering the city and doing various touristy things. We checked out the Reunfication Palace and spent a couple of hours in the War Remnants Museum. The museum was extremely harrowing but very informative and definitely worth a visit. I learned a lot of things about the conduct of the US at the time which made me very, very angry - for example, the use of toxic chemicals by the US on civilians means that the effects of the war are not over even today, as the children of people exposed to it are often born with deformations. Looking around the museum made me realise how much of my information about the Vietnam War was just gleaned from Hollywood movies -  not the most reliable or objective source - so it was good to get another perspective. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out at the Zoo and Botanical Gardens, before we went out for pho for dinner. Pho is a famous traditional Vietnamese dish, which crudely explained is noodle soup containing either rare or cooked beef, or chicken. The soup is flavoured with lemongrass and other herbs and usually contains beansprouts and green veg. Chillis, fish sauce and soy sauce are often served alongside it so you can flavour it to taste.

On our second full day in Saigon we eschewed a visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels (kind of Disneyfied apparently...) in favour of more wandering of the city and a visit to the History Museum which was incredibly boring but did have a little sweetener at the end when we discovered a photo of George W Bush visiting it in 2005! We went to a posh ice cream parlour for gigantic ice cream sundaes afterwards, where we people-watched before walking back through town. Dinner was at a busy Indian restaurant and was pretty tasty although not the best Indian food we've had on our trip so far. A drink at a rooftop bar finished our trip to Saigon - the next morning we were up at six to get a bus to the mountains.