Oceanshaft

Arrived in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday morning. Flying in, from the plane you could see rivers and irrigation canals running through areas of padi fields. The international terminal for the airport is really new and clean, but small. I resisted offers of taxis to catch a local bus (no. 152) down to the city centre, to the area where most of the backpacker hostels and budget hotels are - Pham Ngu Lo and De Tham. Got myself a room, a sim card, had pho for lunch and then visited the Reunification Palace.

The Reunification Palace was really worth the visit. Really spacious and clean-lined architecture, while the rooms were furnished just as they were in the 60s, with Vietnamese art. The basement was really dark and brooding, kept pretty much the way it was when it was a command centre in the war. Had tau hua while I waited for my friend. Interestingly, they put ginger in it. Walked around Dong Khoi and the area with my friend, who later brought me to dinner at this great restaurant to have Hue noodles. The soup was like that of pho, but with more spices, like a lighter and clearer version of tom yam...

The traffice here is chaotic. Motorbikes everywhere.

Today, so far I've visited the War Remnants Museum, walked all over town and ate at Lotteria (there's no MacDonald's here). The reason I ate at Lotteria? Primarily to get out of the hot sun. The streets here, by the way, are mostly tree-lined and quite cool. Also found this street that has a very high concentration of Japanese restaurants, more than I've seen in Singapore so far.

The weather here is hot, so everyone comes out at night, except for the tourists of course, who can be seen wandering around even in the daytime.

Oh, I ran into my friend from Singapore, entirely by chance. Rajah and Tan from Singapore is having their firm's trip to Vietnam right now, apparently. What a coincidence!