The final stop in our brief tour of Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City. If you were confused as to whether you’re in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City, then the towering propogana posters around town would soon set you straight. This is Ho Chi Minh’s town now, despite most people still calling it Saigon…actually I’m still very confused.

We started with a pretty rough landing, after sitting in a cloud-high holding pattern for some time, we bounced back to a few thousand feet after first touch down, leaving skid marks in places other than the runway. Then we weren’t taken by the city straight away, much bigger, slower, ex-patty, far more expensive (we would have spent more in 2 nights here than the entire rest of our trip) and in general people seemed a little more complacent and lazy than in the North (maybe an influence of their longer interaction with the West…). But as we explored more, we once again fell in love with another part of this amazing country.

Lea’s braving of the traffic and her first time on a “motorbike” helped us see much more of Saigon than we would have on foot or in taxis and showed us some of the best seafood we’ve had (anywhere) on the back of vintage Vespas. We walked 12km’s in 35C that feels like 45C weather and had the only meal in my life where I walked out weighing less than when I walked in, having excreted a significant part of my body weight through my pores (and other orifices) over our final Pho. (Pho-nal?? Sorry, that’s perhaps a bridge too… Pho...) We thought about getting something different, but ended up both just getting the same soup…homo-phos? (Ok that’s it, but you can see the reason pho the original…banh. Ok that’s really it.)

We saved a small photune (sorry) by drinking our now infamous special “waters” by the rooftop pool, looking out over the Reunification Palace, had a wonderful final dinner and, Lea, perhaps delusional from not having visited a single wine region or sick of drinking 20c beers in the gutter, suggested we visit a couple of micro-breweries…James reluctantly followed.

Cảm ơn Vietnam. Thank you for everything. It really was truly was unphogettable. However, Mum told me to tell you, “maybe it’s about time to put up your prices”.