Date: 5th June 2011 Place: Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon Weather: sunny but also hard rain at one point We were woken up at about 5am today to go to the border. The border crossing wasn't too painful and actually fairly quick! We then had another 4 hour ish journey to HCMC. When we got there we knew we wanted to go to My My Guesthouse because we had heard great reviews about it. Since we had asked the guide on the bus where it was we knew it was close but didn't know which direction. As they do the taxi drivers bombarded us as soon as we got off the bus and since we knew where we were staying we said My My Guesthouse to try to get them off us since we knew it was close. Well the taxi driver claimed it was a 15 minute drive away when it was actually over the road and down an alley! We found that out later though and ended up staying just around the corner at a place called Kims place which the taxi driver also told us was 10 minutes away and it was over the road. Thankfully we knew he was lying! Whilst we waited for the room to be prepared for all of us we had a wonder around the city. Because we arrived fairly late we couldn't do anything today because all the tours start at 8am. So whilst the girls went to have some beauty treatments done Lucy and I went for some lunch and a coffee. We both tried Vietnamese coffee and it was really nice! The rest of the day we spent going from tourist place to tourist place bartering them down on deals for lots of trips and a bus pass. I think we managed to save us all $5 which is a lot of money out here! I tried to sleep later then since I hadn't much on the bus, but since I had had that coffee I just couldn't, so got showered and we all went for some food and a few cheap beers and I mean cheap! 5,000 Vietnamese Dong (about 15p) The girls were tired to headed back to the room but I stayed drinking and chatting to some English guys I met. Whilst we were sat there, a girl got robbed, right before my eyes, I couldn't believe what had happened. She was just stood on the path in front of me when to men on a moped drove passed her and snatched her bag, but where she held onto it, the bike dragged her to the floor, she managed to keep hold of her bag, but the poor girl had all grazes over her back, she was in complete shock, I think we all were. You hear of these things but never think they happen that often or that it will happen to you. Date: 6th June 2011 Place: Ho Chi Minh City Weather: really hot and sunny Today we were going on a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels and were getting picked up at 8am. We woke up a bit too late though and were in a major rush to get our free breakfast that we weren't going to waste! So I went down with Aoife to just get us all some baguettes to take with us. The woman only bought us 2 though and when we asked for some for the others she told us to go away! But then when we had gone and were back at the guesthouse she came running over with the baguettes in a bag with cheese and bits and said 'you forgot your food!'. I swear she has bipolar! Half way through the bus journey to the tunnels we stopped at a craft place where they made really nice pictures and bits out of egg shell! It was really impressive and they had a huge shop with really nice things in it. I was tempted to buy something but there is no way I want to carry that around for another 10 months! When we finally got to the Cu Chi tunnels we watched a film explaining a bit about them. There was actually a young girl who was famous for fighting and named a hero for killing a lot of Americans. I think she was only around 13. After the film we were shown an entrance to the tunnels which was the smallest hole ever. You had to put your arms above your head to fit through and people kept getting stuck when they tried to get out. I wasn't sure about going in at first because I didn't want risk getting my ass stuck, but did it eventually and found out my ass isn't as big as I thought. We looked in a few different entrances and they all looked really tiny; the tunnels were so small you couldn't stand up in them at all, and the entrances were bigger than further in. They showed us some of the traps the Vietnamese set to catch the Americans and they were really clever but deadly! For example, there were lots which were holes in the floor that they covered by leaves or something and when you stepped on it there were spikes that would pierce some part of your body. After looking at all the traps we stopped next to the firing range to get some drinks and food if we wanted. I really wanted to fire a machine gun but then decided not to, I couldn't justify the cost. Once we had finished there we went to an entrance of a tunnel that we were allowed to walk through. I went down the first two steps of stairs just to get to the actual entrance, I was fine in the tunnel until I heard the other girls screaming, so it panicked me and I got out at the next exit. On the way back to the city we stopped off at a shop that gave us free samples of loads of sweet type things. They then almost demanded we buy things because we had tried the free samples. I just made the most of them and then got on the bus quickly before they started shouting. Vietnamese can get quite aggressive. We got dropped off at the war museum which is full of pictures of people who were injured or killed by the Americans. It was so upsetting seeing what happened to people because of the agent orange attacks. There were even a couple of deformed foetuses in a container. The Americans apparently went right against war rules and killed about 2,000,000 people I think it was, but this museum was extremely anti American so some things could be exaggerated. Once we found our way back to the guesthouse we got ready for dinner. The girls went earlier than us because they were catching a bus. Lucy and I were going for dinner with 3 South African people and a Dutch. As we went down through reception we passed the girls and said our goodbyes. Hopefully we will see them again through Vietnam or if not I will visit them in Darwin. After we had dinner we went to a place that the South African, Bryce, knew about. It does 5000 dong beer which is about 15p. We sat there all night whilst being given free food like ice cream, peanuts, oreos and fruit; playing card games; and teasing Thomas the dutch guy about how he has to live up to all the dutch guys we knew, especially Neils because he was already pretty similar. Everything he did Neils did better according to us J. Once we had finished at the 5000dong bar we went down to Go2 bar to play pool but not to buy drinks because they were way too expensive! There was flour there to put on your hands or something but we just ended up having flour fights. At first we thought we had annoyed the people who worked there but then they started putting it all over me! I had a little flour moustache for ages after that! Date: 7th June 2011 Place: Ho Chi Minh City Weather: really hot again We were going to leave today but we heard that a load of people were meant to be checking into the guesthouse so we thought we would stick around to see if we could meet some new people. We had a bit of a lie in but got up just in time for breakfast. Thomas joined us today and we decided to go for an explore of the city on foot. We went to a park where the reunification palace was. The park was really nice and we had a good walk around there looking at all of the flowers. The palace wasn't very impressive though it just looked a bit like a school. After that we went to have a look for the Notre Dame Cathedral. Since Vietnam used to have a lot of French in it they built the cathedral to look the same. That was a bit more impressive. The best part though was going for a coffee next to it. I had a Iced Vietnamese coffee that was lush and cold. I didn't realise until I was drinking it though just how expensive it was! It was 70,000 dong which is about $3.50 and the equivalent of 3 meals!! Once we had finished there we left Thomas so that he could go to the War Museum whilst I went with Lucy to the market. It had some really nice bits in it like all fancy jewellery and nice bags. I also had some lunch, some fresh spring rolls, with a spicy peanut dip, delicious! Thankfully I didn't have much money on me so I wasn't tempted to buy anything else. On the way out we took the wrong street on the roundabout and ended up going in the opposite direction of our guesthouse. We were lost for hours when the market was literally 5 minutes from where we wanted to be. Still we can now say we have seen most of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh). We went out for Sushi that night in the really nice area of Saigon. It's next to the river and actually looks like a city with sky scrapers and everything! The Sushi place was really posh and so tasty! At the end of our meal a Vietnamese guy came over to us and asked if he could talk English with us so he could practise. We said of course and he bought his "brother" over as well who couldn't speak any English. They gave us some of their rice wine which has quite an acquired taste and it is hot, you have it as a shot not in a glass, like your typical blossom hill. The Vietnamese guy we were talking too (Steven) was hilarious. He always did a funny smile after saying something and would constantly go hmmm with a weird expression. Its hard to explain on here. We also found out that his "brother" is a billionaire (but even I am in Vietnamese money) and is practically famous in Vietnam. He owns a real estate company and has a private car and driver and was covered in gold. They showed us where a cool club was called Gossip. I've never seen anything like it! And it was sooo clean, no sticking to the floors in this club! It's where the celebs of Vietnam go because it is expensive in their terms to get in (about £4). Our friend's camera got confiscated because you're not allowed to take pictures. They all knew the Vietnamese guy as soon as he came in and sorted us all out with fruit platters and drinks that they refill for you as soon as you take a sip. It was funny walking in though because they were playing a remixed version of happy birthday! We stayed there and danced for a while. After they did a sort of raffle thing there where people could win loads of money the guys said to us they were going for dinner now. This was at about 2am! They took us to a posh restaurant where we had wine and noodles. It was the poshest after night out food I had ever had. At the end of the night I couldn't believe it had all happened. We got back to the room, and straight away checked out the website they gave us, to find it was a fake site, you could put your own name, profession and picture on there. Earlier on in the night we joked saying that they were probably the Mafia because the billionaire always had three men around him that were all covered in gold….turns out this could be true! A crazy night out! Date: 8th June 2011 Place: Ho Chi Minh City Weather: Sunny We got up a bit late again today, we're not used to these early starts! Lucy went to sort out breakfast whilst I checked us out. We then got on our bus that was taking us to the Mekong Delta. The Gloucester guys we had met in Siem Reap were on there aswell. They seem to be following us everywhere! Thankfully we stopped along the way in a place that sold coffee because I had missed my fix from breakfast because we were in such a rush. It was nice and strong J. After leaving there we got on a big boat that took us across the Mekong river. The first stop was on a Bee farm. We were given some samples of honey tea and some other stuff which I cant remember what it was. Its apparently good for hangovers though, bonus! There was also a Python there which I held! We then walked around to a place where they did live Vietnamese music and gave us free fruit platters and green tea. The music was really good actually it was all girls singing in Vietnamese. Once they had finished we made our way up to some small boats that were taking us down an even smaller river to get to the big boat again. They were so wobbly I thought we were going to fall off a few times. The boat ride was really nice though, we got to wear Vietnamese hats that are like cones and there were all trees hanging over the little river. Next stop was Unicorn Island, I really thought I was going to see some you know! We went to a candy factory there and had some more free samples. Im making the most of these free samples, the trick is to try them all and then leg it! We got to go on a horse and carriage ride here. I felt sorry for the horses though because they looked as though they were really struggling so I was thankful when I finally got off. We got to walk past a few little houses and it was like what I had expected 4000 Islands to be like; completely deserted of tourists and pretty. When we got back on the boat they took us to the place where we were having lunch. To get there we had to change to another smaller boat and on the way we saw some kids in the trees hanging over the river. Lunch was included in the trip cost but we could pay extra if we wanted to try things like squirrel, crocodile and a few other weird bits. I couldn't afford it but a couple next to me couldn't eat all of their elephant ear fish so let us have some. It was served in spring rolls and was actually really nice as far as fish goes. That was the end of our one day trip and we were taken back to the city. Our bus out wasn't until 7pm so we had a little time to kill so we went to a place called Yoghurt Space which is awesome. You get a cup and there are different flavours of frozen Yoghurt that is like ice cream factory style. You put in as many flavours as you want and then choose your toppings from loads of sweets, chocolate, nuts, etc. and sauce. You then pay on how much it weighs. Very tasty!