We are now in Ho Chi Minh City - formerly known as Saigon. It was renamed by the victorious north Vietnamese army.
Many, especially the south Vietnamese still call it Saigon. Yesterday we went on tour and met Mr Lim, formerly a soldier in the south Vietnamese army. With their allies they were defeated by the communists. He gave us lots of interesting information about HCMC.
The city now has a population of over eight million people. Most of the tenement buildings are under four floors high so the city is very spread out - unlike China were apartment blocks are twenty + floors high and the cities very compact.
There are no motorways in the cities and the streets very narrow.
There are three million+ motorcycles on the roads, one million bicycles and 300,00 cars. Most of these motorcycles are 125cc Hondas or similar.
Most of the inner city streets are clearways and the motorcycles are parked on the footpaths. It took us one and a half hours to travel 30 Km. in the city with Mr Lim!
Every month there are between 100 and 150 road fatalities!
We've decided against hiring motorbikes in HCMC!
