Ho Chi Minh City- Is this really possible????

Hi dear ones !!:)

Happy New Year!!!:):):)
Well we ahve finally arrived to Saigon; what used to be the capital of Vietnam (before re unification!)

We are still alive; still talking. Although Harriet complains that I talk far to much for her health & well being!!!
Sometimes it gets a bit difficult because of course we are of different ages & likes & have very different interests.; ie tashi doesnt really want to go see imperial palaces & Im a bit over shopping!!!!
It must be a bit boring for tashi sometimes & I often get sad when she wont help me with the computer cause I learn so slowly.
we are still having lots of technical challenges with the internet & often thei/net is slower than dial up & still, weve never been able to look at our blog site.

Early in the trip we sent some stuff home & it seems we had 2 usb & meant to send 1 home but must have sent 2 so now Ive bought a memory stick to try & put the burnt cds weve got done of our photos. Its all very quick stuff for some of you guys but for me Im slow & it sometimes takes so long just to open gmail!!! we then put the burnt cd & then try & upload them onto the blog site, but along the way many things go crazy!!! & I think weve left our photo folder on the desktops of a few computers in a few hotels because thats as far as we get in one sitting!!!!!
very frustrating!!!!


hope you all can get on Ok(unlike us!:: :( ) Wed love some comments! & enjoy the stuff. its a bit all over the place cause also some times its 3-4 days in between computers etc. One week in 3 days we travelled by boat, taxi, car, plane ,bus , train& cyclo (its like a tuk tuk- these old men pedal this apparatus where you sit (squash into) a seat & feel guilty about the poor old thing cycling along with your fat western bum!!!

We did nothing for xmas & new year. Its a long story ; but...
last night was new years eve; I wanted to go have a cocktail, but we only arrived here in Hoi chi Minh City late yesterday & there are 10 million people here (half the ammount in the whole of australia!) everybody rides motor scooters & its grid locked; & you have to walk between this swarming, pulsing engine roaring smoke producing mass of motorcycles. Its like a sea of moving, swarming locusts except theyre motorbikes & most have 2-4 people on them.
God its so fucking overwhelming I cant describe it to you; That was the first obstacle; then there was the streets; I still cant even pronounce them let alone remember them or work our way through them; then theres the language: trying to ask where theres a bar thats close, safe???? well what can I say? it was just too hard; so we had some food ( in the open where people can see you eat; which Harriet always hates!!!)& then we walked home said happy new year & went to bed!
We leave Saigon in am & head towards Cambodia by bus and boat trip up the mekong delta & arrive in Phnom Penh sometime on my birthday 3rd. then later up into laos &eventually across to thailand where well spend our last week before coming home.

Weve been travelling for 3 weeks now; sometimes seems like nothing; other times feels like forever; & I woke up today wanting to go home !; till I realised I dont really have a home anymore & then felt totally depressed; just wanted to hide in my bed & never come out!! Sorry, I know this is all meant to be exciting travelling fun stories , but I just couldnt bring myself to face the traffic, dirt. poverty, hassling street sellers &cyclos & taxi drivers to do anything!!!
ho hum... so tashi & I went to breakfast & then sat & watched television, heaven forbid!!! Yes me watching television!!:( shows how bad it feels!!!)

till we got strength to get out & get a taxi 2 km away to the Vietnamese Traditional Medicine Institute to get a massage from the blind people who Ive heard are fabulous; but guess what ?

when we got there ,it was closed as its a public holiday!!!! can you believe it? this place is open 24/7 every day all day. nothing ever closes; but the one day I need to have a massage & change my ticket @ thai airways, theyre closed because of a holiday that they dont even celebrate!! work that one out!!! so we walked along & found a way out hair salon & I pushed Tashi in to get her hair cut by this eccentric guy who was like a magician cutter. cost $60,000.00 dong (about $5.50) thats high end market!!!
We walked around looking for another massage place but it was just a logistics problem & evnetually we gave up; We found this full on supermarket with security everywhere & walked around for a bit, but our hearts just werent in it; I really want a massage!!!:(
Tashi was getting sick by this stage, & its a lot like like Hanoi although different, you can only stand it for short bits!!

I really want to tell you that I like the hustle bustle, crazy, exciting, pulsing,brewing, dynamic energy of this place. Im so sorry to disapont you & say that I just cant seem to deal with it. Theres something missing in me that everybody seems to have a coping mechanism or some'filter switch' that I cant get to work.

Sorry, Im even looking for western food signs. We just saw today " Burger Grill" "Big man Beer" & it looked enticing . We actually ran in & I had a watermelon juice & a cup of tea; but harriet, after reading out the whole menu of western dishes!! wanted to go (back to the tv no doubt!!)
How pathetic are we????

We leave at 730 am. so thats the way it goes hey. that was ho chi minh city!!!
Best give you a few facts:

ready?......
7 million people living in hanoi, 4 million motor bikes!, 10 million in ho chi minh. ( ? 5million motorbikes!!!?)
In all of vietnam 84 million.people.! Now there are20 million in Australia & Australia is 4 times as big as vietnam. so here there are half the whole population of Australia living in this city!!!*******!!!!!


say a prayer for me on my birthday in 2 days!!!


Love you all & miss you

Isabella & tashi