Good Evening, Viet Nam!

Today was a transition day, so my post will be short. Our flight was at 1:40 p.m. and at 11:45 a.m. our faithful driver from the past three days came to take us to the airport. Everything went smoothly, and after a flight of only about an hour we landed in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.

HCMC is a city of 7,000,000 people, a huge change from anywhere we've been up until now. It seems to go on forever, with cars and especially motor bikes everywhere. We took a taxi to the hotel and in the process got our first introduction to big city ways. We were told at the airport the cost of the ride was $10. Period. As we were leaving the airport the driver tried very hard to get us to pay the airport fee. It wasn't all that much, and I, being me, would probably have paid, but I didn't have any small bills, and my significant other was (correctly) adamant that we did not need to pay more than we had. Once we made it clear we weren't paying more our driver was fine with it.

Our hotel is big and beautiful. I think we'll be able to deal with this sort of coddling for the few days we're here. Here's a view from our 19th floor window as the sun is setting in a hazy sky.

Around 7:00 p.m. we decided to go out for some dinner. We were met with an incredible kaleidoscope of sounds and colors. There are lights everywhere, along with zillions of motorbikes and cars with engines buzzing and horns honking. Crossing the street at a crosswalk without a light is not something to be undertaken lightly. Here are a few photos from within a block of our hotel.

Our dinner was just as fabulous as the street scene -- a multi-course, utterly delicious, Vietnamese meal with drinks and beer for $24 each. As long as we don't have anything stolen (most determined thieves on earth per Lonely Planet) or get killed crossing the street, I think we're going to like Viet Nam.