Well, arrived in Saigon for my first ever trip to Vietnam last night (door to door 21 hours).

Emirates flights via DBX uneventful but up to usual high standard with good quality food (by airline standards) and no shortage of drinks.

Arrival at Tan Son Nhat airport around 8pm was in advance of scheduled time and with only 4 people in front of me at passport control, I was soon making my way to collect luggage and clear security (note that you have to put all your luggage through the X-ray scanners on your way INTO Vietnam).

Had brought a new iPhone/ipad for BF and was wary of what would happen with these as I'd read that either I'd be extorted out of significant sums of money or have a lengthy debate with customs staff (involving receipts having to be produced) about whether they accepted these were "personal belongings". In the event, nobody was in the least interested in the contents of my luggage and there did not even appear to be any customs officers on duty at all. So that's a lesson learned.

BF was waiting with his sister and a friend and after a pretty short taxi ride we all soon arrived at the A&EM hotel. Well, after all the discussion about 2 guys sharing a double room, the receptionist turned out to be as camp as Christmas and assured us it would have been no problem. - except they didn't have a room for us (despite being booked and paid in advance) and would we move round the corner to one of their other hotels. So, that's what we did and everything was fine.

Was taken to some club or other last night (will doubtless find out the name at some point. Very loud and very expensive - so no rush to go back. Then a final few beers in a local bar which seemed to be staffed by ladyboys and female prostitutes. Certainly no sign of any boys for hire in either of these establishments. Weather was dry and seemed quite cool really.

Missed the breakfast thus morning (as usual) so I ventured outside about 11am. The weather is certainly different at that time - very hot indeed! By accident I found myself at the famous Ben Thahn market - a maze of stalls selling everything you can think of from a sheeps head to freshly ground coffee. If you're not into haggling, don't go here - the price starts off double what you'll end up paying.

Was quite surprised that the city centre has such a European look to it - very French, with wide boulevards and little parks laid out here and there. The hotel is the same - very ornate inside with period telephones in the rooms and large ornately- framed paintings on the bedroom walls. Very poofy indeed - just the ticket for an old queen.

Found it difficult to locate the foreign exchange booths which are so prevalent in Thailand and ended up changing some money in a bank at around 33000 dong to the ┬г. Then sat in a small cafe and ordered some (4) spring rolls and a Heineken beer - total 60,000 dong = less than ┬г2.

This afternoon visited Diamond Plaza complex with BF, sister, and 2 friends of BF for bowling. 250,000D for 1 hour and by the time we'd each had a few beers and snackettes the bill had reached about 3 x that, but still pretty good value I reckon.

I think the intention is to spend just 3 days in Saigon and them go to Na Trang which BF tells me is at the sea - so, more to come....

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