Ho chi minh city (Saigon), Vietnam - Travelling with a toddler

We began our journey at London gatwick, as we needed to arrive with 3hrs to spare we booked the No1 traveller lounge. We don't check any luggage in (as we lost our luggage in Bangkok once!) so had 2x cabin bags and a trunkii, plus a buggy and a toddler who decided to hit the terrible twos a few months early! When we arrived i the lounge (after a kerfuffle with the booking!) We had a big breakfast and relaxed for an hour!

Once on board, cass slept for about half of the flight, we did a lot of walking around, screaming and seat climbing....EXHAUSTING! We had a connecting flight at Istanbul, had a bit of lunch, then pretty much jumped onto the next...Our connecting flight from KLA to Vietnam, we had only allowed an hour and 5mins, forgetting KLA is one of the biggest airports in the world and a NIGHTMARE to get around, we missed the connection and had to wait about 3hours for the next! We had some lunch and by the time we got throught the heavy amount of security it was time to board the hours flight.

We eventually arrived at our hotel around 8pm, we had time for a quick dinner after dropping our bags off then we tried to get some sleep around 11pm....we found ourselves awake around 3am for a good few nights! Cass coped a little better than we did ad we have found that he does a lot better than us with the time difference than we do in general!

Makesure you buy suncream before you arrive, we could not find any at all! Since we had hand luggage only we had a small amount, luckily it lasted us for cass, we usually get an organic one at a good price in thailand, so i was hoping vietnam would be the same...it was not! I dont like to use any or many chemicals so i use coconut oil myself as it has a natural factor of 10, you just have to re-apply often and you will not burn.

We went for a walk one day to a supermarket and learned the roads are a NIGHTMARE, locals cross and traffic drives around them, you just have to GO! And be confident, we only did this a few times as it was terrifying! There are little or no westerners and not many speak english. In the evenings we would get a taxi to the city area, huge modern malls, there were lots of restaurants and great shopping opportunities. We had a few lovely meal, there are many different cuisines, I ate a lot of PHO, very cheap, healthy and tasty!

We stayed at the Eastin grand hotel, very modern, and fantastic decor, beautiful swimming pool, again a low cost for a 5* hotel! We did a lot of walking, some evenings for dinner, although we didnt find many busy markets and one we did find was very authentic and not westernised like the ones in thailand.

We went to the war museum, the little ones will love looking at the airplanes and tanks on display outside, inside is air conditioned. It is fascinating, but very very sad, allow enough time to have a read of everything on display, if you are travelling with younger kids try to go during nap time! or when it is quieter, we went around lunchtime, so it was very busy! We had a walk afterwards, found a pizza hut...not the best idea, it wasn't very tasty! Stick to the local cuisine, its always the best!

We visited the china town market on our last night, You can buy pretty much anything you can think of at a REDICULOOUS price, you can haggle, there are great quality items too, as a lot of the clothes we buy are made in Vietnam. It wasn't hugley busy, we visited another market a few nights before, the same sort of thing and same crazy prices, well worth a look, you'll get a good few bargains!

A great little trip, Next time we plan on going to the coast, Hanoi hopefully, as you only need a few days in the city!

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