Christmas celebrations

Christmas Eve wasn't exactly spent in a very traditional way but what can you expect when it's 40 degrees hotter than we are used to, all the Christmas songs are sung in Vietnamese and you get robbed the day before? We spent our Christmas in Ho Chi Minh just sorting out things after the robbery and decided to move the celebrations to Christmas Day. It didn't stop us from going to one of the small road bars serving big Saigon beers for 10 000 VND (30 pence!) and where we befriended people from Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and England. We got along so well we all decided to meet up and celebrate Christmas Day together.

Christmas Day started with a well deserved lie in and then we headed out to buy presents! Ben Thanh Market is huge, hot and hectic and perfect for Christmas shopping. We set up a budget of 100 000 VND (I'm going to miss this currency, it's a very special feeling withdrawing two millions in ATMs) and managed to get really good presents for each other.

During the day we had deliberatly been starving ourselves to really be able to enjoy a pricey special Christmas dinner. It was indeed very special actually, and absolutely the first time I've ever had curry on Christmas! After that we met up with our new friends, went to yet another road bar and had loads of rice whiskey, something I suspect we are all regretting today. But all in all a very nice Christmas and now we feel ready to move on to Hanoi in Norh Vietnam even though we are not exactely looking forward to mere 20 degrees and rain.