"Ho Chi Minh City 29/3/08 - 3/4/08 " a Ho Chi Minh City Travel Page by balhannah

The Spring Hotel was to be my base for a few days, a really nice Hotel. From here, I was close to the Opera house, railway station, Notre Dame cathedral, Reunification Palace, the Saigon river, and the Markets. I walked to all of these. When I caught the motorbike, it only cost 10,000dong to the markets. As usual in Vietnam, all of one kind of shops are in the same street, hence, i had quite a time finding the travel agencies. Eventually, asked another aussie, and they happened to know where they were, and set me on the right track. They were in the Backpackers area, the other side of the market to me. I enjoyed walking around the city. I found it safer to cross the street NOT at the traffic lights, as they run the red lights, and quite often it is very congested. It is really quite easy to cross the road, and I also went for a few motorbike rides. The city is quite clean, which was a nice change from Hanoi. There a plenty of eateries also.

I was disappointed with the Mekong Delta. It wasn't the tour company, that was good, and how lovely to have a bus with nice clean windows to take photos out of. I thought that it would have been more rural than what it was. If I had my time again, I wouldn't be bothered going.

The trip to Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels was really good. I was there on a hot day, 35degrees, the tunnels were stifling, and you have to bend over a lot as they are made for the vietnamese. It was interesting, and I felt sorry for our soldiers, the terrible way they met their death.