Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh

The weather has not improved and from the forecast it looks as if the whole of the coastal area of Vietnam is effected by this unseasonal weather. Our plan was to go to Nha Trang which is one of Vietnam's most beautiful beach resorts. We decided, however, that this was not such a good idea as there is little as depressing as a wet beach. We then looked at the possibility of Da Lat, which is inland but up in the mountains. Again we decided that this was a non-starter as our trip to Sapa was not brilliant and demonstrated to us that mountains and wet weather are not the most congenial of combinations. So we decided to make our way directly to Saigon as that would be far enough south to escape the worst of the weather. We were reluctant to leave Hoi An as it is such a lovely place, we had made contact with some great people and the accommodation and location were just perfect. We were going to have to make our move or we could see ourselves just settling into a lazy, but rather damp life in Hoi An.

Because of the distance and the weather, we had little alternative other than flying to Saigon. We booked with JetStar, which is a good cheap airline (part of Qantas), booked our hotel in Saigon and off we went.

Landing in Saigon was a real culture shock. Hoi An was so quiet and Saigon is just the opposite. There are as many, if not more bikes here than in Hanoi. It is said there are 5 million motorcycles in a population of 10 million! Quite believable - the traffic has to be seen to be believed. The driving is, shall we say, creative - the notion of stopping at traffic lights seems to apply to some people but not everyone. Although there are crossings marked on the road there might as well not be as neither pedestrian nor driver takes any notice.

We are staying in a really centrally located hotel which is functional without being luxurious. The attraction is the convenient location where we just have to walk out the back door and we are straight into the Market, which is a wonder at night as the street food is just delicious. We have had what is known here as a 'hot pot'. It is a pot of soup liquid, heavily flavoured with garlic, chilli and lemon grass, over an open burner There is a tray around the edge of the pot with seafood and vegetables, which are scraped into and cooked in the soup. Put some noodles in your bowl, ladle on some hot soup to warm it up, add seafood and veg and then eat the whole lot.....absolutely delicious and for about £6 for both of us.

We have done a city tour which included China Town, a market, the Independence Palace, the Post Office(an amazing late victorian building) and the War Remnants Museum. You need a strong stomach to go to the latter as it tells the story of the Vietnam War (or as they call it here the American War) from the Vietnamese point of view. However you look at it, this war was an absolute disaster. The museum clearly demonstrated the inhumanity of war in uncompromising horrific terms, not something which I have much capacity to take on board. After a brief visit to a small part of the exhibition I decided that I had seen enough, John felt the same, so a bench under a shady tree was a calmer place to sit in reflection while we waited for the rest of our group.

One of the things I am really enjoying about this whole trip is the wide variety of people we are meeting and this city tour encapsulated that mix of nationalities. There were Germans, Japanese, Spanish, Australian, Turkish,Indian, British and this was a group of just 16 people and it is like that everywhere we go. By the way, one of our group works for the BBC as a news programme editor. Those who know me well will appreciate my liking for "Strictly Come Dancing", so I was keen to find out why this is not available on iPlayer. Poor chap didn't know what he was letting himself in for, I now have a promise that this will be investigated on his return to the UK.

One of the highlights of this tour was our guide who clearly wished to demonstrate his male credentials at every opportunity. When we were on the way to China Town he was keen to let all the guys know that Chinese Medicine was, as he put it, "very good when the male battery was run down". He was quick to point out, though, that his battery was fully charged!

The company who ran this tour was called "Kim Tours" so when we stopped at Kim Restaurant we all assumed that the two were linked but it turns out that the restaurant was so named because it was next door to the Kim Tour office, a good example of everything not always being what it seems. We have another couple of days in Saigon so more on this amazing place soon. now