Ho Chi Minh city - Saigon

Landed in Ho Chi Minh City and things went as smoothly on land was they had 

In flight... Man from Riverside hotel was outside with a sign for our attention and thirty minutes later we were checking in to a French colonial hotel long past its prime but much as expected for the budget price.

Yes they came to meet us - hooray!

Hard beds flaky paint a plug that didn't fit the bath and ran out of hot water anyway.... But as clean as you could hope for, friendly staff, free wifi, position living up to its name across the road from the murky Mekong and a breakfast choice to make you hungry just contemplating it.

The old Riverside Hotel - comfortable

Checked in... Time to check out the neighborhood which with several other hotels demonstrated the popularity of this old Saigon section of town.. The next door Majestic, the revamped Grand proudly claiming establishment in 1930 and a little further up the road the Hyatt and a Rex all well above our back to backpackers days budget.

Traffic everywhere - this was a quiet street

We were aware that the riverbank area was a flood with eateries of various standards. But it was across the road ... And how do you negotiate six or eight "lanes" of motor bikes and scooters with the occasional bus and taxi van? You enlist the help of a small girl who escorted us across a very notional zebra crossing ...  Well we followed in her wake.

Wedding party boats are popular on the Meekong River

A wander along the riverbank had us deciding to fall for a tourist trap of a dinner and cruise on an old junk style boat one of half a dozen party boats moored just there. We pre booked then had a beer nearby watching a few of the locals netting fish from the muddy water in the gathering night gloom.

Dinner which among six courses included mackerel baked in foil, could barely be devoured comfortably after a days inactivity. We were on the top floor of the boat affording an excellent view of the night skyline including a high rise with light show built in but we missed the cultural performance which I thought must have been karaoke downstairs ....  Still a good experience of HCMC on this very brief visit.