Mind the girls

Wednesday 18 December

Having packed and disturbed a lixard reading my book, I went for a last walk around Hoi An in the morning and had a final coffee at the trendy café which was playing ultra-chilled music.

I got the impression that they probably don’t fall over themselves to welcome tourists with hardly a word of Vietnamese; who can blame them?

So then it was off to the airport at DaNang. The city boasts some new skyscrapers and bridges. One building looks quite like the London Gerkin, I thought. The airport terminal building is huge and brand new, though there are some war relics – hangers – to be seen outside. Today everything was bang on time. I’d ordered a car to the airport which arrived precisely when asked and the plane took off early if anything. The flight was full of the usual coughers, including a couple of French ladies, one of whom also put it down to a Vietnam effect.

Arriving at the airport at HCM City, I’d already half-planned to take the bus I’d read about. I asked where to catch it and hunted around for something that looked like a bus stop. The final person I asked was dispatching taxis and told me the bus will have stopped by now (it was 5.30 so that seemed odd). Perfect timing for the bus to sail by and stop. I legged it and squeezed on board. The fare of 10,000 dong compared very favourably to the 200,000 for a taxi which is a minimum that according to all the horror reports on Trip Advisor can rise to one’s life savings – or life!

However, all I had to know where to get off was a map from the airline with print so small I could barely read it in the light of the bus. I sat opposite a couple of Korean girls who said they were relying on me which seemed a perfect example of the blind leading the blind. In the end with help from some fellow passengers we got off at the market and I made my way to the hotel.

I was fortunate, I felt, to have already visited Hanoi so that I was fully prepared for the teeming chaos of Saigon streets. Otherwise, the whole bus and walk idea might have come unstuck!

In the evening, I set off to eat having been duly warned by the slightly flirtatious hotel receptionist to beware of over-friendly ladies. After eating I went for a walk around and found some of the main sights – the Notre Dame cathedral, post office and independence palace. I also came across the main high-end shopping mall, the outside of which was thronged with teenagers getting their photos taken outside Hermes, Cartier, Burberry and all the other usual suspects.

The Saigon skyline is impressive and it gives the image of a thriving economy. It’s hard to imagine a communist government having another go at re-education!