EC-Rider Travels

Today has been a travelling day and a sad farewell to lovely Serena, it has been such a treat having her with me and cannot believe how quickly the time with her has gone. It was all very efficient at Phnom Penn airport with the plane again leaving early. I sat next to a charming Australian from Sydney who was working in SE Asia and living in Luang Prabang.

Thirty five minutes later we were in Ho Chi Minh. Unfortunately so were many, many others and it took forever to get through immigration, but despite the strict 15 day limit, no questions were asked! I was met by a rather grumpy driver and driven through crazy, crazy Ho Chi Minh to the Acnos Grand Hotel. You hear about the motorbikes in Vietnam – but you cannot imagine what they are like – it made Mumbai look like Ramsbury high street. They are about six deep, going in every direction, quite often on the wrong side of the road, and if they can’t do that, they simply go, en masse, along the pavement! Crossing the road is quite a thing, the first time I attempted it, some kind Vietnamese lady came and took my arm!

According to my friend on the plane, Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) has grown beyond recognition. It now has a a population of over nine million about the same as London. It was the capital of French Indochina from 1887-1902 and again from 1945-1954. After the partition, it became the capital of South Vietnam until Saigon fell in 1975 when the communists renamed it in honour of Ho Chi Minh. It is not a beauty of a city, pretty chaotic, full of rubbish, motorbikes and many crumbling and dilapidated buildings with shops all selling the same things.

The Acnos Grand Hotel would not be on Bailey Robinson’s list! Definitely designed for the group tour but ok! And indeed, I am now on one of them, with Intrepid (clue may be in the name!). At 6pm I met my travel companions for the next two weeks and Ha our very sweet, Vietnamese tour guide. Intrepid must have been doing some extensive marketing in Ireland as, by complete coincidence, every other member of our group of nine, is Irish: Norman and Thelma from Co Meath, Bill and Carol from Cork, Rob also from Cork, John and Susan from Dublin, and Susan’s sister, Josephine who now lives in Sydney. We were given our, slightly alarming, briefing from Ha and then all went to a local restaurant for a surprisingly good dinner!

Unlike Laos and Cambodia, nothing here is in English, which is quite a surprise, as Ha told us that English is now very much their second language. The French made them change to the Latin alphabet however they have many, many different accents on their vowels. It is the most amazing language, with incredible sounds and must be so hard for them to learn English. Ha’s English is good, but not always the easiest to understand and sometimes she makes the most charming errors. For example we were quite confused by the squirrel eggs in our soup which eventually we worked out were quail! Bed at a sensible hour as we have an early start tomorrow.