Saigon: Foodies Tour

Our first night in Saigon we've booked the "Saigon Foodies Tour" by XO Tours . Oh what a night!
We were picked up from our hotel by two young Vietnamese ladies dressed in Ao Dais, their national dress, on their scooters.



It's an amazing feeling being part of the rat race of hundreds of scooters riding through Saigon.


We went to street stalls where the locals eat - there's no way we could find these places again we were in back alleys and all districts of Saigon. We shared this tour with another lovely couple from Canada.




Our girls spoke pretty good English, had a great sense of humor, chatted, laughed and spoilt us rotten.
They peeled our prawns, cracked our crabs even cooked over open fires for us.









By the end of the night after umpteen courses and beers included we could hardly get off the bikes. As you can see we have put on a tonne!

Our last few days have just been spent, shopping, relaxing and still EATING, the food here is so good and the markets are something else.












One of the most unbelievable things I saw was a lady skinning live frogs!

These last few photos are views from our room on the 18th level of The Grand Saigon.







This is from one window



And this from another window, what a contrast!

Tomorrow we leave for home sweet home, can't wait to talk to our family, whoare still scattered everywhere and catch up with our friends. See you at Currarong club on Friday night.

Crazy, Crazy Saigon

Firstly I'll download some happy snaps of Cham Island


This is the boat we went Across to the island on.


This just doesn't look like Vietnam, more like the South Pacific.





Smally's doing it tough on holidays!


Four men in a round boat.



On our last day in HoiAn we decided to ride up to Marble Mountain, it's as amazing as ever and there are marble statues of Smally everywhere. This ones my favorite.






Inside Marble Mountain




We were so sad to leave Hoi An it's just the best holiday destination, but time to move on to Saigon.
We arrived Sunday lunchtime and were told that there's not much traffic. Ha! It's still as crazy as ever.
We booked into The Grand Saigon into a gorgeous suite and were greeted by a beautiful basket of flowers compliments of our travel agent. What a surprise.
We'd been wandering around Saigon for about half an hour when Steve looks around and says he's lost his backpack. Yes he's done it again! We Retraced our steps and he's convinced someone took it from the ATM we'd been out. Get back to our room and there it is on the floor, he never took it out in the first place. OMG he's a worry. No pics is Saigon yet I'll download some and do another post later.

Happy in Hoi An

One week ago we were freezing in Canberra, waking to most morning temperatures of -5 and looking forward to warmer weather. Well we certainly got that! Everyday we've had bright blue skied days and a temperature of 36. It has been very hot but awesome. It's even too hot to shop for clothes, believe it or not.
We've ridden on decrepit Russian motor bikes to Hai Van Pass, and seen amazing scenery.
We have snorkeled and swam at Cham Island which is the most beautiful tropical island you can imagine with warm pristine waters and had a great seafood lunch on the beach. Then had to have a quick shower and race off to a bar to watch the mighty Doggies thrash the Eels. We were so exhausted after that we slept for 10 straight hours.
We swim most mornings before breakfast and have a few beers or cocktails most afternoons on the beach. In between that, we eat, shop and have nanna & poppy naps.
Steve's morphed into Alex, loosing or misplacing passports, motorbike keys, backpacks and nearly his wallet out of his back pocket as we were riding the motorbike. Lucky he's got me to find them!!

Tomorrow we're off to Saigon to continue our adventure.
Check out this old bike which delivers the ice.



This is the beach we swim and cocktail at.


Our beautiful room


On top of Hai van pass






This is the decrepit bike, awful but fun!