Singapore

We went to the observation deck of Bitexco Tower, the tallest building in Saigon.

Flight to Changi Airport, Singapore (great toilets!) and smooth journey to hostel, bought 3-day tourist MRT pass.

Spongebob thing in Changi Airport

We had our own room in a dorm again.

Hostel had a rooftop jacuzzi!

Explored the area, found the food court and some karaoke bars.

Went in the jacuzzi with some Malaysian lads who were there on a hockey coaching course.

Slept like babies.

Took until 11 next morning to figure out what we were doing with the day.

Took bus 145 to Buddha tooth temple, there was a ceremony happening but we were able to explore anyway. After going up the wrong set of stairs and hitting a dead end (annoying after 5 flights of steep steps) we found the Buddha tooth, and an exhibition about the Buddha himself and his life story.

Rooftop garden

10000 Buddhas

Walked out of the temple straight into Chinatown and had lunch.

Went down the MRT to Farmway and swam at Sengkang Swimming Complex - very cheap as it is a government owned and run pool, a relic from an initiative to build lots of affordable pools in the city to combat the intense heat. We weren't complaining, as we got in for $2! We also chose one with some cool slides and a jacuzzi which was an excellent decision.

Zoomed back to the town centre to eat dinner at Little India - we were literally the only non-Indians there, it was very surreal.

Went looking for Merlion Park, instead found Singapore Flyer (think London Eye), which was lit up spectacularly, along with a helix-design bridge which we had some photos taken on. We also watched the free light show from across the river and a free stage show that was going on.

Found Merlion Park and had some photos, before dragging ourselves home. Intended to go and have some pictures and a chill in the rooftop jacuzzi, but passed out as soon as we hit our beds.

Spent most of the next day wandering around a train station trying to figure out what to do next. Seems like we hit a bit of a dead end; Bali Indonesia was too expensive to reach by air, and too impractical to reach by bus and ferries, we couldn't afford to fly back to Vietnam or Cambodia, particularly as we would need new visas, and we couldn't stay in Singapore as it was too expensive there. Eventually we thrashed out a plan which involved us travelling North to Penang in Malaysia by bus and/or train, and then onto Southern Thailand and perhaps Bangkok before travelling back to Kuala Lumpur for our final weekend and flight home.

Decided on getting a bus as it seemed like the cheaper, more convenient option, particularly as it wouldn't necessitate an overnight stay in Singapore train station (the train we needed leaves only at 8am, daily).

Got a cheap bus over the border to Johor Bahru, and from there we got a bus to Butterworth, where we would catch a ferry across to Penang. 40 ringgit (£8) for the journey seemed a fair price for the distance we were travelling. Until the driver kicked us out in Kuala Lumpur (approximately halfway through e journey) at 1am, despite our protests that we were going to Butterworth. Our theory is that as we were the last passengers, he decided it wasn't worth his while taking us all the way to where we had paid to go.

So there we were, on the streets of KL, bus station closed, looking like we were going to be sleeping rough. It wasn't too bad though, I taught Andy a couple of card games and we swigged away at our grape Fanta like veterans. We were just getting comfortable, when we had a stroke of luck, as a Butterworth-bound coach stopped by around 3 hours later and allowed us to hop on for another 40 ringgit each. There were a few nervy moments where we thought we were going to get kicked off in the wrong place again but we were lucky and the bus left us right outside the ferry port.

 

Last full day in Saigon

We got up fairly early as we intended to do a lot of sightseeing in the city. Armed with our map, we managed to walk all the way from our hostel to the museum about the Vietnam War, only to find it closed for lunch. So we made the short walk to the palace, which was also closed. So we sat in the park, but there were a lot of shoe shiners about giving us the eye, so we admitted defeat and found a nice local place to have lunch. On the way we met a nice coconut salesman, who tried to swindle us for £4 for two coconuts, one of which we didn't ask for. He let us pose with his shoulder carry thing though, so we gave him about £2.

The palace

Andy didn't want his coconut

Tasty fish!

We whiled away another 40 minutes or so in a coffee shop and eventually got into the museum at 1:30. It was definitely worth the wait. As people who knew nearly nothing about the war before coming out here, we were astonished, shocked, appalled and saddened by the accounts and photographs of what occurred. Random, pointless murder of innocent civilians seems to have been high on the US agenda back then, although I realise that the museum only contains one side of the story. Slogans such as 'if its dead, it's Viet Cong' don't help though. And there's not a lot you can do or say to absolve one of the most highly ranked US army units slaughtering 15 defenceless women and children.

Inside the museum

Photos of demonstrations held all over the world protesting against the Vietnam War

Propaganda poster

And then there's Agent Orange, the liquid death sprayed onto Vietnam in huge quantities which is responsible for some truly horrifying mutations and diseases which still plague the people over 40 years later. Not to mention the destruction of countless ecosystems and settlements. History tells us Vietnam won the war, but it sustained some seriously heavy losses at the same time. I could go on about this stuff, but I'm afraid of my own ignorance so I'll quit now.

So the museum was a big eye-opener, and we are really glad we went and saw it. I bought a couple of little bits from the stall on the way out, as the proceeds were going to Agent Orange victims and I thought it was a very worthy cause. We headed out into the rain and walked back towards the hostel. On the way, we stopped for dinner and played a little pool.

We relaxed in the hostel for a while before heading back out to meet Jimmy. While we waited for him in the bar, we made friends with two Australian girls called... Ah I'm terrible with names. Ethel and Doris, that'll do. Eventually Jimmy arrived with his friend John. Everyone got along really well which was great. Jimmy and Doris took down a couple of ridiculously tall Dutch guys at darts and then invited them to join us. It looked like a good night in a big crowd was on the cards, but difficulty finding somewhere decent to party divided the group, and the girls disappeared into the night on the Dutch guys' backs.

Ethel and John

Andy, Jimmy, John and I then headed to a club which was pretty good, the music was ok and It was full of people. However, John inexplicably decided to leave only 10 minutes after arriving, taking Jimmy with him. Andy and I were ok on our own, until a guy came up to Andy and whispered in his ear, "you're beautiful". The look on Andy's face was priceless. Anyway we took that as our cue to head back into home territory, and got a taxi back to our road. There we went to the shisha bar and had some very tasty smoke on the roof of the bar. Then we slept.

Crowded nightclub

View from the rooftop of the shisha bar

Turns out Hanoi beer is pretty good!