Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh (440km)

We boarded the train at Nha Trang at 10.15pm, relaxed but tired from a long day. We were both glad to have sleeper beds booked and this time we had managed to book an upper and lower berth instead of two upper berths.

However, when we got on the train we found that we were sharing our cabin with an elderly Vietnamese couple, and the man had decided that he would just sleep in my allocated lower berth.

I was not in the mood. I told him to move. He jumped up pretty quickly but did not seem to want to move. I showed him our tickets and pointed out the berth numbers and made it clear to him that he was sleeping in my bed. After he made a big show of checking our tickets he grabbed the bedding and moved up to his allocated upper berth.

However this then left me with no bedding. Matt told him to give me the clean bedding (pillow, sheet and blanket) from his upper berth. He either didn't understand or just didn't want to give it to me. An argument ensued. We do not speak any Vietnamese and they did not speak any English but eventually the wife stepped in and apparently told him to hand over the bedding because he did.

Finally exhausted we went straight to bed to try and get as much sleep as possible before our 5am wake up. The train tracks between Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh are currently under construction and so at 5am we would need to get up, move ourselves and our luggage onto a bus which would then take us about 30 minutes to another train station, where we would then board another train for the final 45 minutes of our journey.

We were so tired we managed to get to sleep but our friend in the upper berth decided to take his revenge on us by talking really loudly on his phone at 2.30am and then again at 4am.
At 4.30am Matt decided to wake me so we could get ready to disembark the train. He tried to tap me but couldn't quite reach me from the upper berth. The lady (who was sleeping on the lower berth opposite from me) decided to help and promptly slapped me on the ass. It was not an ideal wake up call.

(Photos: around Ho Chi Minh City; inside the Ben Thanh market; street signs; Matt & his coconuts; Saigon Central Post Office).

We did the bus/train transfer without issue and we were glad to be rid of our traveling companions.
After a short taxi ride from the train station we checked into our hotel (The Southern Star) in Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon. I am sad to say that the very first sight I saw as our train pulled into Saigon station was a man taking a shit on the train tracks. Nice.

We immediately noticed the increase in temperature and humidity in HCMC, and that combined with our jouney the night before meant that we had little energy for exploring on that first day. Our hotel was extremely kind in allowing us to check in early at 9am, so we took the opportunity to nap and relax.
We went out later in the evening along Bui Vien street (which is one of the main streets in the tourist area of HCMC) for dinner. The pace of HCMC is extremely hectic and there were people and motorbikes absolutely everywhere.

We found a fantastic Indian restaurant for dinner, then on our walk home to the hotel (less than 1km) we witnessed a number of beggars, prostitutes and a pickpocketing, plus we were offered marijuana by every second Vietnamese person we passed by.

Next day we felt well rested and found an amazing asian bakery for breakfast.

(Photo: Saigon Central Post Office interior)

Then we explored the enormous Ben Thanh market and haggled for some t-shirts and souvenirs. This was fun at first but then after a while it becomes quite wearing as every single vendor you walk past gets right up in your face trying to offer you their merchandise, usually for ridiculously inflated prices. I ended up buying some decent quality t-shirts from a fixed price stall because I was just sick of the haggling! The customers at the Ben Thanh market are a mix of foreigners and Vietnamese, and most of the foreign customers appear to be Indian people so perhaps these selling tactics are effective with different groups of customers, but I can't imagine most Westerners would enjoy them. In fact I probably would have bought more or spent more time looking at some stalls if the vendors had not been so intense.
(Photos: HCMC street; Saigon Notre Dame Basilica; eating out; deep dish pizza; propaganda poster; Ho Chi Minh statue).

For dinner we loved the mexican food at La Fiesta as well as the happy hour drinks.

On our last day in HCMC we explored the city on foot (way too hectic to hire a motorbike) and saw the Saigon Central Post Office (a beautifully preserved French colonial building) and then the War Remnants museum. The museum was interesting but we were struck by the amount of propaganda throughout the museum. It was very interesting but not exactly factual in it's presentation.

Next day we had an early start for our bus trip to Phnom Penh.