After a toxic 16 hour bus journey, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon, high as a kite! The bus we took from Phnom Penh was falling apart, and stunk of burning engine oil.
Ho Chi Minh City hasn't been officially called Saigon in more than three decades, although the name Saigon is still widely used by locals and tourists alike. The communist government changed the name of the city to honour the nation's great nationalist leader in 1976.
We stayed in a small hotel in amongst a maze of small houses, apartments, and shops - just off the main backpacker street (De Tham St). We spent the rest of our day exploring Saigon, and the local market.

The following day we had arranged for a trip to the renowned Cu Chi tunnels. The area of Cu Chi was mainly just jungle and tribal villages. The villagers originally dug the tunnels to hide in the Indochina war against the French, at this time they were roughly 3m deep. During what the Vietnamese call; the American war in Vietnam, and what we know as the Vietnam war, the tunnels had to be dug much deeper, now around 10-12m, to protect themselves against the more destructive bombs. During the tour we were shown how the local people defended themselves, and used many different types of booby traps intended to injure, maim, or even kill the American troops. We also saw an old American tank, destroyed by a local handmade mine/bomb.
As we walked further the sound of gun fire echoed through the jungle, which without pre warning would've been pretty terrifying! But we were told before the tour - there was the opportunity to fire an AK47, for 350,000 dong (£12) for just 10 bullets. After watching a couple of people fire off a few rounds, we left the sounds of gun fire behind us, and headed to one of many tunnels in Cu Chi. Before entering our tour guide told us it wasn't for the faint hearted, and definitely not for the claustrophobic! So some didn't do it, but me and Amelia went for it, and not just the short one, we crawled 20m, the majority in the pitch black, on our hands and knees!
On the way back to Saigon, we were dropped at a restaurant to try a traditional Vietnamese pancake - egg based, with beansprouts, lettuce and a choice of either meat or seafood, we chose chicken. You cut the pancake into rectangular shaped sections, and roll it with the salad and chicken, a bit like a wrap/spring roll, to then dip into a sweet chilli sauce - not bad! After lunch we walked to the 'War Remnants Museum' where we saw all the left over American military vehicles, planes, helicopters, and (hopefully) disarmed bombs! We also learnt about the wars in Vietnam...in particular the American War, their use of napalm bombs, and the toxic defoliant, known as agent orange. The museum portrayed a very sickening image of the American soldiers and government. We left feeling very shocked and appalled.
For dinner we had a street BBQ, for me deer, chicken heart, and goat. For Amelia... chicken. And for dessert 'Fanny Ice Cream'.

Next, getting another dodgy bus down south to the Mekong...