Monday 1st November

I was quite excited when I woke up, as I was off to Ho Chi Minh City, my final destination before heading to Vancouver. Mostly I was excited about finally getting to a big city with some international fashion shops, in the hope I could buy some winter clothes!

I was at the breakfast buffet as soon as it opened, and as it was still too early to depart for the airport I went for a wander around the resort grounds, where the rainwater had finally started to subcede. (I'm so glad I bought my jellies - they have to be the most versatile shoes ever, especially in the rain!) The Moree ladies had failed in their attempt to find the "Miss Australia suite" (each suite had the name of the Miss Universe contestant who had stayed in it during the competition), and I was determined to find it. Heading down to the pool (beautiful and absolutely monstrous, apparently it's one of the largest in Asia), it ended up being easy to find - facing the beach and nestled near Miss USA and Miss Venezuela (the winner of the 2008 Miss Universe pageant). I was just hoping that no one was staying in it, as I walked up to the suite and started snapping photos - "I promise, I'm not a stalker!"

The shuttle bus arrived to take me to the airport, and though the rain was a lot lighter than the previous days, the roads still showed signs of flooding. One place in particularly was quite hairy, as the rocks that had been nestled into the mountainside had fallen, lying across the road - one boulder would have been several tonne at least, so it's lucky that no cars had been driving past at the time it fell.

The plane was delayed in taking off as the pilot (an Aussie - they all seem to be Aussie pilots around here!) advised that the small airport did not have the safety equipment (fog lights?) necessary for planes to take off in rainy weather. Luckily, it was only a short delay - I was just glad to be getting out of Nha Trang at all!

Arriving into Ho Chi Minh City, I took a metered taxi to my hotel, Green Suites in District 1 (the core of the city). It was located right next to 'Bu Vien', which is the Vietnam equivalent of Thailand's Khao San Road. I had heard mixed reports about the city: some said that the further south you went, the better it was; whereas others said that Ho Chi Minh was dirty, polluted, and had too much traffic (after all, it was a city of 10 million people with more than 5 million registered motorbikes).

I headed out to the shops as soon as I dropped my bag, the first stop being Vincom Towers. This was the biggest and glitziest mall in the whole of Vietnam, with stores including Nine West, Emporio Armani and Jimmy Choo. Unfortunately, Nine West in HCMC, like Hanoi, only has shoes up to a size 8, and none of the other clothes stores had winter clothes (or any that I liked, anyway), so I left empty handed. (I also experienced a mis-understanding here about what Vegetarianism means - it does not mean that seafood is ok!)

I dropped into Ben Thanh market on the way back, which was the largest tourist market in HCMC. The Moree ladies had told me to buy perfume here and bags at An Dong, and I didn't want to make any purchases until I'd checked out An Dong so I headed back to my hotel empty-handed for a rest. I had planned to head out to An Dong that night, but the receptionist advised me that the market didn't stay open late, so I simply had dinner and an early night watching How I Met Your Mother (all repeats, but it's such a funny show!)