Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon

Hi All

This update is a bit late but we are a bit behind with the blog (and diaries!) and are struggling to find time to update it, but we will continue to do our best and find the time in our hectic schedule!
Ho Chi Minh City is a very busy and noisy place. There are thousands of mopeds and they drive like maniacs – it was very scary crossing the roads so you wait for a local and follow them!
Our hostel was located in a back alley in district 1 the old and cheap part of town but the guest house as the hostels are known here was nice and clean.
The first day we decided to walk to the Reunification Palace and it was nice and hot outside. The building itself does not look like a palace but a big government building and has not changed at all since 30th of April 1975 when a communist tank crashed into the gate which was the day Saigon surrendered.
The next place we visited was the War Remnants Museum, on the grounds of this museum there are old war planes, helicopters, tanks and some huge bombs. Inside the museum there was lots of photo's about the war and its impact on the Vietnamese people. It was a very sad experience to see the photo's and the stories behind them.
On the way back we visited the Notre Dame Cathedral (which resembles the one in Paris) and then had to take shelter in a coffee shop as the heavens opened.
We also visited the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City which is more of a shrine to Ho Chi Minh himself and his life.
We also went to the cinema to watch Night at the Museum 2 which turned out to be more funny to watch the audience as they laugh constantly at everything ha ha ha.
We also went to the old war market, they say its a war market but there was a lot of fake army clothes, helmets etc.
We bought some postcards and stamps from the most stunning post office I have ever seen, it had those old fashioned wooden phone boxes and it looked a lot like grand central station!

From Ho Chi Minh City we got the 6 hour bus to Cambodia and Phnom Penh. (we will try and add a blog for Phnom Penh tomorrow so check again!)