My first stop in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City, more commonly known by it's previous name - Saigon. It didn't exactly endear me to the country or the people, (particularly having just come from Cambodia), everything was a bit frustrating. The people are not particularly friendly (/downright rude). It's a huge city, everything is crammed in, there are few open spaces and I found it difficult to find my way around. Every time I crossed the street was a trauma in itself - despite having good roads, white lines, roundabouts, traffic lights, etc, people ride their motorbikes wherever and in whatever direction they like (and there are literally millions of motorbikes in this city). The sound of horns blaring is continuous and abrasive. Not to mention the plethora of middle-aged Western men that hang out on their own in the restaurants during the day and with young Vietnamese 'ladies' in the bars and clubs in the evenings - I was shocked by just how many there were.

At first glance, Vietnam is quite different to Cambodia and Thailand - it is very built up, the architecture all looks quite modern/European and the language is written in the Roman alphabet (apparently they used to have characters similar to the Chinese but the French changed it when they took control). In fact, I think the written Vietnamese words look similar to Irish but perhaps that's just my imagination...

A couple of us decided to look for solice from the craziness of the city in the Botanical Gardens, which were at the zoo. However, when we got inside it wasn't exactly what we had imagined - the trees and plants dotted around the zoo were the 'botanical gardens' so we wandered round looking at the animals instead, which wasn't the relaxing snooze in the sun I had in mind but it turned out to be fun. I saw a cassowary, which I had never seen or heard of before - a huge and rather scary-looking bird.

I visited the War Museum, which had a collection of tanks, planes, helicopters, guns and bombs from the Vietnam War. However, what I wasn't expecting was the collections of photographs - there was an exhibition dedicated to journalists and photographers that reported the war, most of whom had been killed in the process - these stories and photos were very interesting and gave great insight. Then there was a shocking collection of photos and stories of victims of chemical attacks by the US army (mostly Agent Orange) - it was very moving and I had to leave because it was too difficult to read about how these chemical attacks affected not only those directly exposed but also their children, many of which were born with terrible diseases and deformities.

I also visited the Notre Dame Cathedral - not quite as grand as its Parisien namesake - it had some unusual neon statues inside and an impressive large statue of Mary in front. Next to the cathedral is the main post office, a beautiful building from the French colonial era with a huge smiling image of Ho Chi Minh dominating the interior and some classic communist statues outside.

I saw the strangely designed Reunification Palace but only from afar. Finally I went to the Jade Emperor Pagoda in Saigon's Chinatown (here they call temples 'pagodas', which is confusing because I think of a pagoda as something else), it was a small and dusty Chinese-style temple, not a patch on the ones I'd seen in China.

Vietnam was hosting the 2008 Miss Universe contest around the time I was there. There was some publicity about it but I didn't see any of the events.

While in Ho Chi Minh City, we had our last group dinner with Phalkun in the Ben Thanh Market and then went dancing at Go Go bar. We met our new trip leader for Vietnam - Quan.