... And to sum up...

Back in Saigon we checked into our new guest house, this time on the fourth floor; just what you need with a heavy rucksack and no lift! After crashing out for a bit we headed back into the chaos that is Saigon, it was back to "khong cam on" (no thank you) to everyone trying to sell us something... we already missed the simplicity of the Mekong.

We had a fantastic Indian that evening, although Phil didn't want to order too much as he was a little touchy about his weight; on the walk to the restaurant we walked passed a 'massage' place and two of the girls said "Hello big boy...!" to him. I told him not to worry, I thought he looked fine.

The next day was a bitsy day; we didn't really have much to do so we ended up walking a lot! We headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral and had a good look at the outside, then headed into the very impressive post office to send home a parcel. It looked more like a train station, only with stamps instead of trains.

That evening we went to a brilliant place hidden away on a dark street. It was very popular with the locals so we headed in to find out what the fuss was about. There were lots of different open air cooking stations, each with its own specialty, we both had different types of beef and both were absolutely gorgeous. It was a great find for our last Vietnamese meal... or so we thought.

When we got back Sion started to feel really unwell, long story short, and most gruesome details omitted, she was up hourly until the next morning making friends with the toilet. Not nice at all and very tiring. This wouldn't have mattered any other day but Friday was the day we had a bus booked to Phnom Penh in Cambodia and Saturday was the day our visas ran out so we had to leave the next day no matter what! Phil popped out at 6:30am to change our bus tickets, cancel our hotel, extend the one we were in and buy Sion some drugs! Even at that time in the morning it was bustling and it could have been any other hour in the day, this is the city that never sleeps.

After a day in bed with plenty of dizzy spells, lots of sleep and plenty of crappy TV, we got up the next morning and made the bus to Phnom Penh, and that's where we are now, country number nine!

So how can we sum up Vietnam...? Well, it's mentally busy ALL THE TIME, EVERYWHERE. The horn of motorbikes, cars, trucks and buses are in constant use by every road user, they beep to turn, they beep to overtake, they beep to speed up, they beep to slow down, they beep to stop... we can't help wondering why no one's taught them the use for the indicator. It's hot and packed everywhere, it's very believable that we met all 85 million of them in the thirty days we were there. We learnt that they are very resourceful people who recycle everything, not because it's good for the planet but because they have a second use for it and it's their way of making money; streets were dedicated to people making new washing machines and bike engines from bits of old ones. They also have fantastic balance, we saw some hilarious things being carried on moto's, including a wide screen TV, a fridge, a pig, countless chickens, whole families (we're talking husband, wife, granny and kids), barrels of water, sacks of fruit, you name it, someone at some point has carried it on the back of a bike! We saw lots of walking bookshelves too, sellers would come up to us carrying huge amounts of photocopied lonely planet guides and reading books, Nick Horby and Ben Elton are very popular here apparently. We were amazed that so many people were wearing conical hats, we thought they were something you hear about but you don't see, just like every Australian owns a dangling cork sun hat. But conical hats were everywhere, being used to keep the sun off them, to shelter from the rain and to fan themselves when hot. All in all we fell in love with the people, despite the frequency of being offered things you don't want, they were amazingly friendly people and the whole country was just like nothing we'd seen before. Vietnam was an absolute highlight of this trip. We're in love with the place.