first stop on our overseas trip was in Ho Chi Min City formally known as Saigon. A busy crowded array of motorbikes, hawkers and much more, our destination was to be in the backpacker district called District 1. After arriving in the airport we were to catch a bus to the district. the first thing witnessed as we drove out of the airport was thousands and thousands of motorbikes, all dodging  around each other all trying to go every different direction. Our hotel was in the heart of the backpacker area so there was a huge amount of western tourists as too there were heaps of local touts trying to sell you local made sunglasses through to DVD, trough to about anything. we were only a block away from a massive 4 story night club that played older hit music until about 7oclock every morning, this became quite confronting after a while as there was no stop to it. i wondered how all the local people felt about this. If you are a guitar player like me no trip could be complete without a visit to guitar street, a 500 meter stretch of road that just specialize in the manufacture and sale of guitars and all types of instruments. you need to shop around as some shops have a lot better products than others. but this was a real highlight in Saigon.

Any westerners looking for cheap products Saigon is a a real must  there is practically every product you would want to buy, but all at 1/10 Th of the price. The products are all imitations but i have seen a lot of imitations and these are really high quality products. Designer jeans are exactly like the real ones. designer shoes, in fact anything designer. I am looking at the pair of RayBans  i bought in Saigon compared to the pair i bought back home they are so close to the original i find it hard to tell the difference. difference being the originals cost $150 and the imitations cost $2