HCM

Ho Chi Minh City is an assault on the senses.

• Sight - Pandemonium on the streets - trucks, buses, cars, motos, cyclos and pedestrians all mixing it at frenetic pace, with right of way depending on size and courage
  
• Sound - the rumble of exhausts and high pitched blaring of horns - I'm coming through!
• Smell - the meat section of the market was enough to halt us in our tracks and head the other way
• Taste - the delicate aroma of nitrous oxides from the exhaust fumes. About 10% of moto riders, and some pedestrians, wear masks to filter the fumes. Pollution really is appalling here. A bit like a really muggy polluted Sydney day, but more so
  
• Touch - that pressure on your arm as yet another stall owner pulls you over to her stall for her incredibly good T shirts
  
• 6th - what you need when crossing the road. You really are better off closing your eyes and walking at a steady pace so the traffic flows around you cleanly. Uncertainty is a death warrant.

But Fi and I survived the day. Some interesting experiences - a surprisingly good streetside coffee for less than a dollar, and some good T shirt buys, but an excruciatingly bad experience as a cheap cyclo trip turned sour and we were harassed for more money. It had its light side though, with the driver impressing on us how hard he'd worked by lifting up his shirt and showing us his war wounds!

And I think I might have mentioned how Nik broke my watch just before I left. Well, I've made amends, and I'm now sporting a $6,000 Rolex Explorer on my wrist. Nik - you owe me big time. But perhaps you'll be pleased to know that your Dad's deft bargaining skills got it for a mere $15, quite good I thought when the vendor originally wanted absolutely no less than $27 for it. Ok - I'm sure someone out there will know where to get one for $10... - but at least my one's still ticking after 6 hours!

I would also like to commend the Hotel Sheraton for its clean toilets, top floor views, free maps, money exchange and air-conditioned bars, even though we didn't spend a single dong there. Being a brazen foreigner has its uses.

Perhaps we'll go back for a beer there this evening.