Ho Chi Minh, huge, alive and lots of parks. It was an impressive first stop in Vietnam and a big change in modern ways compared to Cambodia. The people were nice, better then what I had expected after hearing a few stories... Being the largest city in Vietnam, I decided to stick to the first district of 12 to explore, and that was plenty for a few days. Most of my days were spent people watching in the parks, locals were doing Thai Chi, exercising and giving dance lessons at all hours...It was also just a great place to relax after some gloomy but necessary site seeing. My first stop was at the War museum. It was the best history lesson in have ever had. It was informative and grotesque. It demonstrated the impact, results and unimaginable war crimes that were committed. Some if the pictures and statement gave you tears and goosebumps.... people are cruel. Pictures of decapitated bodies being held up by soldiers with smiles on their faces, fear in children eyes and destruction. Everywhere in Vietnam, effects of agent orange cannot be ignored. On the up side of things... There was a entire section dedicated to pictures of protest and newspapers from all over the world supporting Vietnam. It was the only uplifting part of the museum.. nice people cared, they really appreciated it. My last day I went to the Cu Chi tunnels, now that was impressive. It still seems unreal the tactics that were used to defeat the US. The traps, the networks....the Vietnamese are very smart. That's what I got from my field trip. Fortunately to distract myself from information overload, district one has a street lined with small plastic chairs and tables, the kind you used to sit on in kindergarten, except here, you drink copious amounts of 'bia hoi', which is the best beer I have tasted in SEA, not to mention the cheapest... in the world... Bonus! Now going north, expecting some much needed cooler weather, Nha Trang for the day!