Safe in Saigon

Well I made it, a couple of hiccups at the airport on the way including me not reading my flight itinerary properly and thinking my flight left at 12.30 when it actually left at 2pm and ending up at the airport super early, then waiting even longer with plane delays due to having to balance up the weight distribution.

But, I am now here. It is 11:17 local time, no idea what time it is in Australia, about 1am I'm guessing. I'm probably still running on adrenaline as I don't feel tired (yet) even with only 2 hours sleep last night and a brief nap on the plane to Darwin. I'll probably crash tomorrow though. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that my plan of staying up till its late here will help me avoid as much of jet-lag as possible. We'll see!

I had no drama's with getting through customs and found a taxi that took me to my hotel which is very nice. So definitely thanks to God for all of that. Met some nice people on the plane from Darwin so good chats there.

So far, what I've seen of HCMC is a very busy, bustling city with many many MANY motorbikes and scooters! Its amusing to watch the lack of roadrules - you drive on the 'right' side of the road here, but the traffic does have a tendency to go all over the place.

Some things remind me of living in Africa - random things like white paint around the bottom 1m of the trees on the side walk (why is that??!), men sitting on the sides of the road playing games. But there are so many other different things as well. Scooters are parked by the hundreds all over the footpaths in front of shops - which happen to be still open at 11pm at night selling clothes and things, and people sit on their scooters like a chair, cross-legged or lying on top of them.

Anyway, sleep time. Plan for tomorrow: start exploring the city and getting my bearings! Night!