Wow - we are finally in Ho Chi Minh city. Flew out of Sydney at 2pm and touched down in HCMC (or should I call it Saigon) around 8ish local time. Customs was pretty much a non-event, it was more like our security at the domestic airport - I just got waved through after they x-rayed the bags. Getting to your hotel is pretty easy so it seems. I just ordered a drive from the hotel limo service - 10 USD.

The trip however was a little traumatic. There are apparently 3 million motorcycles/scooters in the city and they all seemed to be out tonight. I am surprised that there are not more accidents as there does not seem to be any respect for other motorists or pedestrians. Motorbikes will regularly run red lights and cross into the next lane. However there is not much in the way of road rage, everyone seems to take it in their stride and just beep their horn and move on. The worst would have had to have been the roundabouts - at least the cross streets had traffic lights!

The taxi driver also got lost on the way to the hotel and had to stop for directions. I was glad that I had prepaid for the service rather than putting it on the meter as he really did take us the long away around.

The city itself I can only classify as a sprawl. A delicious blend of pho restaurants, dress and jeans stores and motorcycle shops! I think I will have a great time tomorrow walking around and exploring.

The hotel itself (Liberty 6) is not too bad. It has a good size bed, air conditioning and massage and pedicures in house. Vic’s already picked out a massage package that will take about 5 hours and only costs 50 USD - not bad at all. Food is very cheap as well, we’ve ordered room service and it works out to about 9 USD for beef, vegetables and a combination fried rice. As it is around 1am sydney time we aren’t game to go exploring too much tonight. We’ll do that tomorrow after massages and perhaps catch up with one of our friend’s brothers here.

Oh and the mini bar lists Heinekens at 1USD each!

Kind of cruel but a guy pays $500 to prank his mate at a baseball game. Let the video roll on..