Ho-Chi-Minh

20th April 2010 The main event for today was to catch the train to Sapa, a small town way up in the mountains in the North of Vietnam. However the train wasn’t until 8:30 this evening, so we had most of the day for getting in some more sight-seeing in Ha Noi. Despite having had a number of days here last week, we still hadn’t made it to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum whilst it was open - it is only open in the mornings, and not every day of the week. As this was something we wanted to do, we made a point of getting up early this morning and heading straight over there after a quick breakfast. ...

23rd March 2010 …in more ways than one! We elected to take it easy today and just get used to Saigon. We started the morning with a trip to the market round the corner for some fruit and yoghurt for breakfast, then onto the larger market down the road for a wander about. You feel quiet conspicuous wandering through the tiny pathways between the stalls. We’re in an area where you don’t see many westerners, so we stick out like a sore thumb, and the alleyways really are tiny. ...

10th March 2010 The current plan after Singapore is to travel by train to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia then to fly out to Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. Vietnam is one of the few countries we need a visa for in advance so this morning we caught a train out to the Vietnamese embassy which is about a thirty minute train ride from the centre. We were slightly wet by the time we arrived at the embassy because it had been raining hard all morning, but we were able to fill in our forms and leave our passports in order to (hopefully) collect our visa on Friday morning. ...