Ho Chi Minh city

So after a dramatic week of "Do I go, do I not go, do I go, do I not go...to Thailand" Dave and I ended up changing both our plans and ended up in Vietnam instead. Dave was initially supposed to go to Phillipines, myself Thailand. Both countries have been dealing with severe flooding the last few weeks. While the Phillipines has mostly dried out it seems, Bangkok was just getting started. All the water flowing from the North, combined with another large monsoon shower this weekend was putting Bangkok in a bad situation. It killed me to cancel my trip because I was so looking forward to seeing my friends and host family. But I also wasn't looking for having to deal with major flooding on my holiday. Thursday, after getting a text from a friend in Bangkok saying people were starting to leave the city, I told Dave I wasn't going and within a few hours we had a trip to Vietnam organized. The silly thing about this whole thing is initially we were planning on going to Vietnam! We had decided not to though because our holidays are cut a bit short because we have to move into the the new school. We thought we'd sort of 'give this holiday up' in terms our official travel plans, and leave ourselves to do what we wanted. Anyway, here we now sit in Ho Chi Minh city, motorcycle horns hooking outside our room. And I just have to say later Dave admitted that he was actually thinking about flying back to New Zealand if I was going to go to Thailand. I can't believe he was actually thinking about going to NZ without me! We left for Ho Chi Minh this morning, arrived early afternoon. We THOROUGHLY ENJOYED the convenience of our ipads on the budget airline. Dave had downloaded some movies, and so we were able to keep ourselves quite entertained. We were picked up and brought to our hotel. We had a good coffee, chatted with the girl and then quickly made our way to a pre-selected bar to watch the rugby, France vs Wales. We have had a bit of a wander around. So far Dave and I really enjoy the city. Funny enough, we feel like we are actually back in South East Asia which is a bit of an odd feeling since we live in South East Asia. English isn't the first language here, though many do speak it...at least here in the city. There are more motorcycles. Oh the sight of 4 people and the week's groceries on a motorcycle, how I've missed you. Things are much cheaper here and shops seem to come in all shapes and forms (people squatting on the sidewalk, food vendors on wheels, people selling things on motorcycle, etc.) Tomorrow we wander around the city by foot and then watch another rugby game. I think we will venture out in the evening. Tonight is an early night in. We are both exhausted and need a good sleep in. After all we are on holiday. Hopefully I can figure out how to upload photos on to this blog from my ipad. I don't seem to have the right app or something. I'm not sure what is going on. Anyway, my bed is calling. A movie must be finished. Signing out in Ho Chi Minh