Parks

In an unheard of show of efficiency, our overnight train to Saigon arrived an hour early.

In an indescribable show of crap organisation, we were not allowed to check into our hotel.

At 5.30am, Viet marched us bleary-eyed through the streets of Saigon. At this time in the morning the heat is already crushing, and I drag my feet in heavy steps along the pavement. Viet wheels us into the park; and it's heaving.

Dance music pumps out of distant boom boxes, and we can see clustered groups of people in sportswear on the lawns between the flowerbeds and in the bandstands. We have to move round some men setting up a badminton court in the pathway. People are waiting patiently for a go on the outdoor gym equipment, including chin bars and exercise bikes. We group under the shade of some trees to watch a women-only exercise group doing frantic chest pumps.In the distance some elderly people are doing Tai Chi.

Viet jumps opposite the group; for one crazy second I think that he is going to start taking the class, but he simply performs his usual suite of bizarre (though impressive) ninja stretches. He invites us to join in the exercise, but I think that he can read the collective sleep-deprived faces that say 'Sod. That. Shit.' He says he'll meet up with us later. We wander around the unselfconscious exercisers for a while, then pile into a Starbucks coffee for some calories and some glorious air-conditioning.