Ho Chi Minh City

We've been in HCMC for a couple of days now and are getting into the swing of things. It's pretty much a swarming mass of scooters, cars, beeping horns, touts and people ALL the time. We've been wandering around our local neighbourhood to to get a feel for it, checking out some shops, there's some great shopping here. As for restaurants, there's a huge range of cuisine from street stalls, western bistros and local back alley joints. We've not done much touristy stuff apart from looking at a couple of markets. One is massive, full of food, clothes, and pretty much everything. We were at another yesterday which had more army surplus and industrial supplies so a real mixture. Kirsten got a hat pretty cheaply so that was good. We had walked a fair way over to a gallery yesterday only to find they would have been closing in 15 minutes - we did get to see a lot of street life though, including a group of kids playing soccer on a crowded footpath and occasionally out into the busy street! We're on a bit of a slower start today, all the walking is taking it out of us a bit but we intend to go to a couple of museums and the local version of the Notre Dame Cathedral.