I can't find any pictures of Saigon, so the above one of the Maldives will have to do. I'm sure you have an image of it in your head anyway. That image is probably spot on; it's amazing how many stereotypes we managed to reinfoirce in such a short time. Every woman here wears one of those conical hats, whilst cycling around or carrying baskets of fruit and flowers around on their shoulders. We can't find anywhere that sells them which is pretty odd. Maybe they're sold out? However, our favourite stereotype was, of course, Saigon as a place for gentle relaxation for the various navy crews of the world. Last night we wandered into the Dong Khai area looking for an, as it turns out non-existent, Indian restaraunt. It was so rowdy, and we rolled our eyes as we could hear grunting and shouting from a local bar that was showing the latest All-Blacks rugby match. We had a quick look and saw a bunch of men standing around in sailors' suits, that consisted of white shirts, white shoes, white socks, and, most amusingly of all, white shorts. We thought 'aw naw, there's some sort of awful mass stag-do going on here'. However, a few of them chased us down the street, as they wanted to tell us all about life in the navy. At first we just thought they were fat, but they were actually just huge. And they clearly didn't think much of my puny frame, and my whispy little voice. They loved Jenny though; I think they thought I was her ugly mate. Anyway, it was the New Zealand navy. Who knows why they were here, but it was clear they were having alot of fun. One of them told he'd been stationed at Faslane for a couple of years, whilst the others just slurred about the 'quality' of the girls in Saigon, and performed wrestling moves on each other. We felt slightly awkward, so were relieved when a bar owner saw them coming and about 15 girls came rushing to the door, with the male bar workers desparately trying to convince them this was the place to be. The girls were jumping up and down trying to make themselves stand out, shouting about 'good times' and quoting prices (perhaps for the drinks?; the excellent pastry menu?; or maybe the pool table?) Anyway, they forgot we were there, and darted for the bar. They walked into the crowd of girls in the manner of boxers or WWF wrestlers walking into the ring: hands raised, punching the air with excitement as they were mobbed by their adoring fans. We bolted round the corner and went to the first place we could find, which turned out to be the Ashoka Indian restaraunt. Jenny was so excited to see a little piece of home. The food was just as good as our Ashoka, the only difference being that it was around a 10th of the price (yet still well outwith the confines of our budget; we were just too embarassed to get up and leave, plus we were entranced by the smell). Anyway, Saigon is a great place. I think I liked it more than Jenny did, but we both agree it's a great place to sit around in your hotel and watch MTV. We didn't do much in the way of sightseeing here because we've been travelling so much, and we're felling a bit knackered. On the first day we went to see the 'War Remnants Museum', which is referred to as the 'American War-Crimes Museum' by the cyclo tour guides. If this is a subjective opinion on the part of the tour guides, that's fair enough. If it's an objective description of the museum, it's an equally valid statement! There is a pretty clear bias in the layout (which overall is understandable, and in some sections seems to be the only way to describe the military tactics deployed) which makes it amazing that the US and Vietnam have 'normal' relations nowadays. Neither Jenny nor myself are interested much in war machines, but the collection of tanks, guns, and aircraft is impressive. Quite smilar to the genocide museum in Phnom Penh in that it is genuinely interesting, significant, and well laid out. It could have descended easily into a barrage of homoerotic facts about gun sizes, and the movements of forces on the ground, but it stays well-clear of that. After an hour or so we went back outside to see that our cyclo drivbers had waited for us. They wanted to take us to a few more sites, and we agreed to go with them. What a dreadful mistake. Our driver said 'it's up to you' when we asked how much we should pay, and so we took it that our final payment would be a reasonable continuation of what we had paid so far, with a generous tip, seeing as they were so nice. However, after a couple of circuits of the busiest streets I have ever seen, we asked to be dropped off at the busy riverfront. Instead, they dropped us off outside a construction site, and we were soon joined by a small crowd of seemingly interested Vietnamese bystanders. We soon realised this was an intimidation tactic, and the young men who had joined us were associates of our drivers. They demanded 800,000 vietnamese dong from us (about US$60) claiming that we'd been with them for 4 hours, that they were hungry and tired, and that we should pay seeing as were were evidently so rich. We pointed out that we'd only been with them for 2.5 hours, which led to arguements between us and the drivers, and intimidating laughter from the crowd... ..late for bus, will finsih later....