Saigon Jo

It's the last day of my holiday in Vietnam and I am very sad to be going home. the week has gone way too quickly and there have been countless antics along the way. We started out this time last week searching for the hotel we had made a booking for over the internet. We found it, only to discover they had no rooms left, but they quickly sorted us out with a neighbouring hotel for the same price. Same same but different. Kinda the way things are around here. You certainly can't be in any kind of hurry. The second day we spent a good portion of our time sitting in travel agencies sorting out flights to Danang. After lunch I hit the sack for a long siesta but apparently our travel companion carried on bargaining and attemtping to drive the air ticket prices down and at one point had three different places booking tickets for us. Not surprisingly he was eventually told that there were no seats left. At one point there were possibly three Jos flying to Danang. In the end he got a very good deal for $2 more expensive than the original quote. But he enjoyed himself tremendously.

In Danang more trouble when we couldn't get on a train - all full apprently. So we spent a good 10 minutes nagging a taxi driver to get us to Hue on the cheap. He eventually relented, but only after the boys had hassled him for long enough to earn a punch from any driver in Oz. Yes, there are way too many details to go into here, but basically the trip has consisted of the three of us laughing at The Negotiators attempts to drive down prices everywhere we go. OK, i admit that sometimes it was getting on my nerves, especially when it was just a can of drink that was already only costing us 40 cents! But I have to say, overall, we all got along very well. Even though I was surrounded by 3 boys, I don't regret coming along! But one week is not long enough. I still haven't tried the breakfast staple, Pho or been in a ride on a cyclo. I did have a dress made in Hoi An though, and it remains to be seen whether that was worth while... I went diving in absolutely perfect conditions and saw some crazy fish, and got down to 30 metres.

But now it's home time :( I will definitely be back next year!