We arrived in HCM / Saigon on Wednesday 12th after a straight forward bus journey and border crossing from Cambodia. We quickly found a new guest house for a few nights which was very similar to others that we had stayed at but with the inclusion of a mini bar!!! Hurray! We arrived late in the afternoon and had a casual stroll for a few hours and had a delicious Vietnamese meal. Whilsy enjoying our meal we suddenly realised that we needed to sort out our visa for Laos which in an ideal world would be sorted out in HCM as we had decided that we would not be going to Hanoi.

A valuable lesson was learnt here...always trust the Rough Guide Handbook! We decided to ignore their directions and looked at the Laos Govt website to find the address for the embassy...after a taxi ride we had gone to the wrong place. We spoke to a lady and asked where where we could get a Laos Visa...she kindly gave us the address and off we went in another taxi...ten minuted later we are startled to find ourselves outside the Laos Bank with the driver pointing the Visa bank sign!!! Joy...once we consulted the Rough Guide again we managed to find the embassy and secured our Visa...a fun morning indeed!!!

The afternoon was spent visiting several of the museums. These included the Ho Chi Minh City Museum, a guided tour around the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum. The evening was folllowed by a Pizza, good old western food and surprise surprise it was horrible!!!

Friday was spent at the Cu Chi Tunnels. This was a guided tour by a Vietamese man who sounded like he had learnt english from Mr T from the A team! He was brilliant and full of information. The tunnels were by far one of the best things we have done so far. Lucy managed to crawl through 30 metres of tunnel in pitch black and I managed the full 90m. It was amazing to think that people would spend six months here, living, eating and fighting. Cu Chi and the Museums gave us an incredible insight into the Vietnam War and the needless lives that we lost.

The Vietnamese people are extremely friendly, kind and hardworking. Everyone wants to help you and all the children love speaking English to you. The constant noise of the motorbikes adds to the energy of the City which is growing enormously.

Next stop...internal flight to Hoi An.