New Year

Yay! After Christmas I worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then started holidays to coincide with David's visit to Vietnam. Our plan was to meet up in HCM City on 30 December, spend a few days there and then go for a relaxing holiday somewhere (Mui Ne), hopefully with a few days to spare so that David could come to Vung Tau as well.

I took the boat up to HCM City on Monday afternoon and checked into a hotel in the backpackers district on Bui Vien Street (but it wasn't all that nice and so I changed the next day to the hotel I stayed in when I first arrived in Vietnam. $1 US more and 1000% better, for no other reason I can think of except that it is just outside the backpackers district).

That night I discovered that there was music and food in the park across from Pham Ngu Lao. (When David and I visited in 1999 this area was waste ground.) The picture on the left is from a kids show - the one on the right was more traditional music, and included singers floating on the pond in boats.

On 30 December I spent some time exploring HCM City while waiting for David to arrive, and also arranged to meet up with Sharon and Irene for dinner. That night there was a huge storm, flooding the streets, and the planned walk to Le Jardin restaurant became a taxi ride, moving very slowly through the traffic. Afterwards we went to the bar on the 9th floor of the Caravelle Hotel.

Next day we met up with Phil for lunch then headed off to Ngon Restaurant near Reunification Palace for a great meal - here's the fish! Then we walked back to Pham Ngu Lao, experiencing first hand the traffic and the lights. For many people in Vietnam, going out driving on the streets is recreation. It doesn't seem to matter much that everyone else has the same idea, and that as a result you don't get very far!!

Next day we had lunch with Bao, Thanh and Khoa - at Ngon Restaurant again - before getting on the bus to Mui Ne.