Last day in Saigon

We have now met up with Paul's friends Angus and Debbie who have come to travel with us for the next two weeks. We spent the last few days before they arrived checking out the History Museum and the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City. We also took the bus out to Cholon (Chinatown) and checked out the market there (which was absolutely huge) and a few of the pagodas. We also had a relaxing day where we had our hair cut and went to see a movie (Fast and Furious 4). The cinema was really nice and the quality of the movie was good too (pretty sure this one wasn't pirated!).

The local buses around HCM City are really cheap. They are all air conditioned and they only cost 3000 dong per ticket (less than US$0.25). I don't think that many tourists use the buses though - I haven't seen any tourists on them. It is kind of hard to use them unless you know where the name of the bus stop where you are going, but it is easy enough to catch the local buses between Cholon and Ben Thanh (the central market) for example or between the interstate bus station and Ben Thanh.

We didn't realise that Angus and Debbie were arriving right before a big Vietnamese holiday which lasts for three days. Our plans to go to Dalat were foiled because there are hardly any buses running during this time and the ones that were running were all full. Luckily, we managed to nab seats on the bus to Mui Ne which is a beach town north of HCM City so we will head there for a few days before going to Dalat.