We've come to the end of our time in Vietnam and it's certainly been a mixed bag. We've seen some great places but the weather has been so on and off that it's put a slight downer on an otherwise great place. The biggest disappointment was having to miss Hanoi, and therefore Halong Bay, because of the floods and heavy rain. However, everywhere we've been has been hit by heavy rain at some point so it must be we were either unlucky or visited at the wrong time. Either way we've still really enjoyed the country with Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it's still called, being the highlights.

Our stay in HCMC has been relatively short but we've packed quite a bit in, visiting the Vietcong tunnels at Cu Chi, the War Remnants Museum, Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral and the local markets, and of course a tour of the restaurants and bars. The tunnels were great and seeing the ingenuity that was used by the local people during the war at firsthand was great. A brief crawl through a reconstructed tunnel - twice the size of the originals, put into perspective the conditions in Vietnam in the 60's and 70's, and the visit to the museum was pretty shocking. We knew what to expect but nothing can prepare you for a visit there, all there is that can be said is that coming to Vietnam you get to see a side of the war that you probably won't elsewhere in the world, ie what really happened and the devastating effects of America's tactics on the lives of people and the natural resources of the country.

We managed to meet up with a couple we'd met in Laos and they'd just come from Cambodia, which is where we headed tomorrow morning. Our bus will take us to the capital Phnom Penh and we plan on a few weeks around the country. It certainly feels like we've missed a lot of Vietnam and we've both mentioned the prospect of coming back at some point, as we've really enjoyed what we've seen and know there's a lot more of it that we've missed.