With Dalat's adventures now of the past we headed to Saigon on the overnight sleeping bus. The inside of the bus has 2 levels upper and lower sleeping level with chairs that recline to about 85%.It was a rather speedy ride as we left at 10 and arrived at 4:30am in Saigon. As both Meg and I were forced to wake up and as the Vietnamese fortunately are early risers, we were able to get an Iced coffee from a street vendor and sat down to view the map. After getting the route up on google maps we made our way down the road. As I was walking in a my sleep deprived state, a hand reached over me and grabbed my phone. I fortunately had same grip and pulled it back and shouted at the guy quite loudly and with a deep voice. He ran away with such a scared look on his face. He jumped on the back of his friend's motorbike, I proceeded to the road and shouted "you!!!" with a pointed finger after him. He just stared in disbelieve. I thank God that I was not hurt and that he was not able to get my phone.

The next obstacle was to find a guest house that was open, all the hotels, guest houses and hostels go on lock down by midnight and open by 7am...it was 5:30am. After having no joy with the place we were recommended via the traveller's grapevine, we fortunately found a place where they were letting a lady out, we were allowed in and they had a room available...what a relief!

In our still -sleep deprived state we paid the war remembrance museum a visit. It was probably for the best that half my energy was sapped as it was pretty depressing. The agent orange room was just too much for me! When I started feeling physically ill I decided to call it quits...good thing it was the last room to visit in the museum. I don't understand war!

Onto the Cu Chi Tunnels for an afternoon tour. What a fascinating experience. We were able to fit into the tiny hole in the ground, but were told they have increased the size for westerners. That first tunnel though was so tiny in comparison to the 120m tunnel they allow one to crawl through. It was so hot down there and even with it being "larger" felt rather claustrophobic towards the end. I am not too sure how they managed to live down there. It became evident really quickly though that it wasn't only America that were fighting dirty. The traps that the Vietnamese used for animal trapping was turned on the Americans and these were pretty cleverly designed brutal killing contraptions. Spikes in different shapes and forms which were intended solely for human destruction or for creating ambushes by ensuring the guy who fell in calls for help and when his mates come to the rescue they would have walked straight into the ambush. Apparently all is fair in love and war.

What would a visit to Saigon be without savouring the Bia Hoi or Saigon Export at 7000 Dong. Road side restaurants had chairs packed outside in rows, allowing for front row seats views of the world going by. Also what would the last Vietnamese travel destination be without Dai and Kat...Kat and Dai had after meeting Meg and I in Hanoi travelled with us to Halong Bay. They did the 5 day road trip from Hoi An to Nha Trang and onwards together to Dalat. They then decided to break away to Saigon...little did any of us know we would be cutting Dalat short and randomly meet up with them in Saigon too.

Ho Chi Mien city (Saigon) is just crazy...crazy Asia at its best! With 6 million motorbikes in a city populated by 10 million people. As Saigon like many parts of south east asia was under French rule for a while, they had quite a strong French influence most prevalently seen by their own Notre Damn Cathedral and ofcourse their bakery is definitely French legacy at its best.