Sunday 26th July - got to Ho Chi Minh City which used to be called Saigon, but the locals still call it Saigon. For the first time in my entire travels I have my own room. I have a double bed and a t.v, aircon and a fridge!! I've spent all day travelling from 8am, by boat, taxi and plane, so when I got here this evening I collapsed on the bed and watched CSI on the t.v. It was bliss.

Monday 27th - got a cyclo who took me around for 4 hours. I visited the Reunification Palace, which served as the Presidential Palace, and it was through the buildings gates that the first communist tanks in Saigon crashed through in 1975, the day Saigon surrendered, and the building has been left as it was on that day. Then went to the War Remnants museum which is harrowing and brutal. On display were artilery pieces, a model of tiger cages used to house VC prisoners, and a heartbreaking array of photographs of the victims of the war - those who suffered torture as well as those born with birth defects caused by America's use of defoliants (Agent Orange). The American soldiers mutilated and disembowelled young children as young as 5 years old, and would hunt kids down to kill in the most awful ways, including newborn babies. I wanted to cry reading the stories of survivors and seeing the photos of the real victims. Its horrendous. Saw some temples and went along the river and visited a really busy market. The sweet little Vietnamese cyclo driver who turned out not to be so sweet robbed me blind. He quoted 200,000 dong for the day, then conveniently at the end he pulled out a piece of paper which stated that was the price per hour, and he tried to say we'd been out for 6 hours, and it had only been 4, so I refused to pay 6 hours as I han't even left the questhouse when he said he'd picked me up!! He got quite aggressive and there were other cyclo drivers gathered around so I just payed for 4 hours, and I have learnt the hard way. I know I'm a tourist and I expect to be ripped off, but that was a big lesson in exactly how much details and confirmation I need before getting anything. It could have left me with a nasty first impression of the place, but it hasn't. s*** happens - get over it. I'm over it.

The traffic here is the craziest I have ever seen in my life, its all motorbikes everywhere, there are no road rules, they go in every direction, but luckily at a steady speed, so to cross the road you just walk out and cross slowly, so they can see you and swerve around you. The first time a local man guided me across, but now 'Im a pro! You see families of 4 on one bike, including toddlers as young as 2 or 3 years old, and I've seen them asleep with their heads on the handle bars!!

Went to Chu Chi Tunnels which are a network of tunnels used in the 1960's to facilitate Viet Cong control of a large area not far from Saigon. There are more than 200km of tunnels in Cu Chi alone. We saw a sniper hole in the ground which even the kids in the group could never have got in. The Vietnamese were so tiny. Saw loads of gruesome booby traps - and the South Vietnamese used sniffer dogs to sniff out the VC, but the VC set up traps for the dogs so the dogs would fall into the ground onto huge spikes, then they would eat the dogs. Well they still do! There was a rifle range close by where people were practising, so to hear the cracking of gun shots whilst walking through the jungle surrounded by those tunnels was so surreal. We then had a chance to get in one. They have made them slightly bigger for us tourists as we are 20 times the size of them. They made their tunnels 3 levels deep, first level at 3 metres deep, second level 6 metres, third level 8 metres, and they had bunkers and all sorts down there. We went the full 8 metres deep, and they had widened the tunnel to 1 metre for us Westerners, and we crawled along in the dark for 120 metres. It was so stuffy and we on our hands and knees at some points as our heads were scraping the roof. It was a relief to get out, but its amazing to think how they lived for weeks at a time in those. On the way back the heavens opened to a proper onslaught of monsoon rain flooding the roads.

Wednesday 29th - 30th July - went on a tour of the Mekong Delta River. Had a boat cruise through the floating market of Cai Be, then we went to the workshops to see how the village made coconut candy and rice paper. We had loads of free samples of candy and Vietnamese tea. Stopped for lunch and we were recommended the local delicacy of 'Elephant ear fish'. Apparantly the fish looked like an elephant ear (didn't see the resemblance myself). Now I'm not really into seafood. I'm into SEE-food, I see it and eat it, but this is all about trying the local dishes. This fish is exclusive to the Mekong river. It comes with fish sauce which they love over here, it smells pungent and doesn't taste great, but we rolled the fish with noodles and veg in rice paper and it wasn't bad. Now this reminds me of when me and Rob went on holiday to Fuerteventura a few years ago and we ate at a different restaurant every night sampling the local food and wine which we loved, and a middleaged English couple from up north came by, pissing, whinging and moaning how they could not find bangers'n'mash. BANGERS'N'MASH!! Me and Rob looked at each other in disbelief and thought why don't they piss off back to Lancashire and get it then?? Honest to god. One of the guys on the trip was an American of Vietnamese heritage called David, and he was a lovely guy, trying to teach me how to use chopsticks. I explained I've had several people try to teach me with no success. Once again I'm fine with just the chopsticks and have the motion perfect, go to actually use them and it all falls apart miserably. Going back on the boat trip for a 3 hour cruise passing villages we saw loads of kids splashing about and playing in the river, and they got so excited to see us, they all congregated on the banks shouting and waving 'Hello' to us - their beautiful smiles and laughter were infectious, so we were all waving back like lunatics. Other people were washing in the river, and people watching is so fascinating, its great. Got to the main city Cantho, and a group of us went to dinner, me, David, 2 Kiwi girls Tash and Anna, and 2 English lads Gareth and Nick. Them two had us in hysterics about their hostel horror stories, and Nick is this fantastic guy who resembles Neil from 'The Young Ones' and talks exactly like Ringo Starr. All the little kids were waving and shouting 'Hello' to us on the streets, and we were not hassled for anything at all like in Saigon. Next day we were up early to go to the biggest floating market of Cai Rang, and we were taken on a rowing boat to get in amongst it, and sampled local fruits and bread which tasted of doughnuts, then went back and chilled on the roof of our boat watching the world getting on with their lives. Then went to a local market on land where we saw live eels and snails in buckets, live fish which when purchased were smacked over the head, had their throats cut then were deflaked there and then. We stood watching mesmorized. There was tons of meat hanging about with flies all over it, and a plate with a pigs head and trotters just sat there. I turned to Nick and said its enough to turn you vegetarian, then we both laughed and said "nah". As long as its cooked! And Nicks theory was we are top of the food chain, and he may think differently if there were 50 foot giants who ate us (yes he admitted he smokes too much weed). Lunch then back on the bus for a 4 hour ride back to Saigon. The bus was packed and I was last on after faffing around and got wedged at the back between young German Guys who stank of sweat and would not stop talking at the highest volume possible. It was HELL on earth. After 2 hours we stopped for a break and I said to David it was torture, ao the absolute diamond offered to swap seats with me so I could have his at the front. In the words of the New Zealander comedians 'Flight of the Concordes' - DAVE, YOUR A LEGEND!!!!!

Had a 24 hour journey on a sleeper bus to Hoi An. The beds are made for midgets, and your cramped in like sardines, but its the cheapest way to get there. I didn't actually get to see any of Hoi An as the sickness kicked in. Serves me right for having no sympathy for Colin when he was ill. Paybacks a b**** and its well and truly bitten me in the arse. Luckily I came pre-prepared with antibiotics, but felt awful, so just stayed in my room all day feeling like I had gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson and lost miserably.

Got bus next day to Hue feeling slightly better, and got a motorbike ride to take me to the Citadel, after managing to haggle the price down. They really do push their luck! The Citadel is the Imperial City where the Emperors official functions were carried out, and its a 'Citadel within a Citadel', and within the enclosure was the Forbidden Purple City, which was reserved for the Emperors private life, and only eunuchs were allowed in as servants as they posed no threat to the Royal Concubines. The place was very regal. Next day took boat cruise down the Perfume River taking in a KungFoo show by local kids who were fantastic, and lots of temples and tombs. By the end I was all tombed out, so missed the last one to go browsing through the market and stopped off for a drink and chat with a local man and woman. He was trying to get my email address, I gave him a fake name, just to be polite. The humidity here is between 90-95%, its a killer!! The lady at the hotel where I was staying was very sweet and gave me a bunch of bananas to take on the night bus, and I got picked up by a motorbike to take me to the bus and as I was wearing a skirt I had to ride side-saddle. Interesting experience.

Another overnight 12 hour journey on sleeper bus to Hanoi. It amazes me how much of a faff people cause by choosing a seat, they have a mothers meeting - "Oooh, what about this one? Or is this one better?" Their all the god damn same. Its not rocket science, choose a seat and sit your arse down! They really do like to cram everyone in, there were people sleeping on the floors in the aisles. Honestly. There was a sourfaced fat arsed local woman who sat in the aisle next to me - practically ontop of me, so I had to ask her to remove her handbag from out of my face several times, and she was so loud and got off at 3am with her gaggle of 50 million screaming kids. My god this is hell. Got off bus and they are really quite aggressive here, and I'd already heard that about the North, I had taxi drivers pulling me in all directions, walking off with my bag to put on their bike, shouting after me, pulling my arms, so I screamed at them to BACK OFF!!!! and got in a taxi car, and he totally overcharged me, did not give me enough change and when I challenged him about my change he dived in the car and drove off. I'm actually cutting short my trip here as im sick of the constant hassling and getting ripped off left right and centre, so going on a 2 day Halong Bay trip tomorrow, and have booked my flight to Laos in 3 days time. I'm over Vietnam, well and truly.

I got to the hostel and got chatting to a guy from Grove, Wantage, and he's best mates with a guy I briefly dated from Grove 7 years ago. How random is that? Such a small world. Went to see a water puppetry show as it originates in North Vietnam. It was in the theatre with the authentic music and singing to accompany it, the show was an hour long and I really enjoyed it. Afterwards grabbed a Bia Hoi which is the local beer for the equivalent of 10 pence. It was so refreshing, and a bargain, I could get hammered on 50p!!! Met a lovely Chinese girl from Bejing in my room who's English name is Tori, so we booked to go on the Halong Bay boat trip together for 1 night and 2 days. Drove 3 hours on a bus to Halong City, then got on the boat which was really nice. There was a group of Vietnamese women who kept to themselves, a group of French (90% of the tourists here are French, all to do with their conquering history), and we met a lovely couple, Mark from the UK and Emma from Ireland, and an Austrian couple Marco and Elizabeth, and they are some of the nicest people I've met in a long while, so us 6 all hung out. We had lunch on the boat then went for a cruise through the bay up to some caves which we took a walk through. Our guide spent ages describing how different parts of the cave looked like people or objects e.g Homer Simpson, a buddha, jellyfish, a monkey e.t.c. It was so humid we all looked like we had just stepped out of a sauna, sweat was dripping off our heads, down our tops and backs. It was so gross. Got back on the boat and took a leisurely cruise down the bay again which was beautiful. There are over 3000 small islands in the bay. We sat on the top deck all playing cards and drinking beer, and then we were told we could go for a swim. Now we had all witnessed the enormous jellyfish swimming by, but we all decided to swim anyway it was so hot we needed to cool off, so all of us including the crew jumped off the top deck into the sea which was so warm and had a swim. Luckily no-one got stung, then we watched the sunset over the bay with a beer, then had dinner which was bloody lovely. The Vietnamese crew then cracked on with the karaoke, and no-one else would sing. They asked me, so I sang a Vanessa Paradis song, and then the French decided to have a go, and listening to a Vietnamese crew member singing a rendition of The Beatles 'Love me do' has got to be one of the best things I've ever heard. Chilled out on the top deck after watching the sunset , then watched the sheet lightning in the sky, it was about every 30 seconds just lighting up the entire sky, and fell asleep in the chair I was so relaxed, then Tori woke me up to go to bed. We shared a room and the fans were a welcome relief. Heard the thunder overhead during the night, but there was no rain. Got up early for breakfast the next day and we sailed back to Halong City taking in the spectacular views. Then got back to our hostel, and they were having wine tasting and a BBQ on the rooftop bar, so me, Emma and Mark went and by the end of it the Aussie owner said all the beers in the freezer were free, so Emma ran up, elbowed everyone out the way and grabbed a beer for each of us. Good girl. Us 2 were also eyeing up the 2 burgers that were left over, and she attempted to lean over and pinch them several times, but the woman kept coming back, but in the end she gave them to us for free as we were sat closest. Result!!

Up early the next day and me and Tori shared a taxi to the airport as I was off to Lao and she's going back home to China. Her parents don't know she's in Vietnam as they hate the country and people and never wanted her to come here, but she was only on a weeks holiday, and she said she'll tell them when she gets back. Apparantly her dad will freak. The womans 25 for crying out loud, but she was telling me that facebook and Youtube are blocked in China, there are entire pages of newspapers blacked out in censorship. We discussed the 1 child policy and both her parents work for the government, so if they had had a second child, they would have been fined and lost their jobs. Farmers are allowed another child if their first born is a girl, so they can try for a boy as girls are so insignificant, and Grandparents are always thoroughly disappointed with female grandchildren. If they all had just boys, how do they think the boys are going to reproduce? By themselves????? Tori also said her generation are incredibly selfish and selfcentred as having all the attention from parents and 4 grandparents, they have no sense of sharing, but there are 20 million people in Bejing alone, which is the entire population of Australia!!!!