Ho Chi Minh City (formally known as Siagon) is the 2nd largest city in Vietnam and was the capital of South Vietnam before the country was unified.Ho Chi Minh was the founder of the Vietnamese communist party and leader of North Vietnam until his death in 1969. His picture is EVERYWHERE in Vietnam, he is on every banknote, the major roads are all named after him and there are statues of "Uncle Ho" everywhere. How much the South Vietnamese really like him is up for debate, but as Vietnam is one country now, they don't have a lot of choice in the matter.

While in HCM we also experienced something that we had pretty much forgotten about….Rain. It rained every day we were there and not little showers, but full on downpours that lasted ages. We couldn't visit Vietnam without doing some tourist stuff relating to the war and went to the Cu Chi Tunnels to the north of HCM. This was the largest of the tunnel networks set up by the Viet Cong.The tunnels are tiny… they have enlarged a section of them that you can crawl down, and that's exactly what I did…50m on all fours, holding my water in my mouth.Even then, I banged my head occasionally and I felt very claustrophobic as I went along.We also got bitten to pieces by mozzies after hanging around in the jungle all day.As part of the day trip we went to a Cao Dai temple. This is a religion based in Vietnam which is a bit of a mish mash of all the other major religions. It takes bits and pieces from Catholicism, Islam and Buddhism and considers Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha, prophets of an all seeing God represented by a single divine eye over their temple. They have a pope, but as the first one died in 1935, he hasn't been replaced and they believe that they can contact him via séances which are part of their religion.It gets weirder still as they also believe that Winston Churchill, Joan of Arc and George Harrison (!!!) are messengers from God. During the tour, you get to look at their temple and watch a ceremony.Its quite interesting, but very strange, particularly as you can recognise certain aspects from each religion.

While we were in HCM, we spent a lot of time in the markets while Emma debated about what handbag to buy….In the end she decided to buy them all and do her own personal Paris Hilton impression spending 4 Million on handbags. Admittedly, that may only be Dong, but it was still quite impressive. I managed to pick up a little present for my sister as well, I just have to hope that it manages to travel all the way across Oz before I see her.

One of the abiding memories of Vietnam will be the absolute madness of the roads. There are over 8 million motorbikes in HCM and they seem to have a very loose regard for the rules of the road. They drive the wrong way up the road, on the pavement and wherever the bike can physically go. When you cross the road, its like playing your own personal version of Frogger. You have to walk fairly slowly across the road so that they can judge where you are and try to avoid you because they have no intention of stopping for you.

Vietnam was a nice destination it was similair to Thailand, but not as set up for tourists; although I'm sure that will change in the next few years. After spending the week there, I think we should have gone to north vietnam as well to see if it was any different, being more traditionally communist. But time was moving on and it was time to head for Oz and the next leg of our trip.