Woke up to the sounds of the Mekong Delta around 4am, which has become my usual wake up. You could hear the occasional boat motoring down the delta, roosters crowing and loudest of all was one of the guys in the next room snoring. Glad I wasn't next to his bed.

We were served a local breakfast which seems to consist of egg, bread and jam which is just fine by me and there is always tea and coffee available. We said goodbye to our hosts and jumped back in our boat for the trip back to the port where we met our bus driver. Next stop would be the Cu Chi tunnels, after the mandatory "Happy House" break.

At the tunnels we had lunch down by the river. It felt like we were actually on a houseboat with the water moving rather quickly past us, taking the reeds down the river. Great thing with group meals here in Vietnam is at the end they come around and tally up your meal so you can pay individually so you don't have to worry about arguments about the bill.

Time to visit the Tunnels. We visited a place called Ben Dinh where there is a network of over 250kms of tunnels, all the way to Cambodia. We were shown a video, mind you it was made back in the 60's during the war and has never been updated. It was pretty much all about Vietnam heros killing Americans. There were 3 levels of tunnels, going all the way down to about 15m underground. We were shown an entry/exit point under some leaves they would have used and a local guard jumped down and showed us how they would have had the plate over their head as they popped out or popped back in. We were then able to try. I fitted in but as I tried to lower all the way down, a certain part of my anatomy got in the way… a good laugh was had by all! I was very proud of myself though because I was able to get out of the hole by myself, all those chin ups my PT insisted on at the gym paid off. He always said everyone should be able to do one chin up in case they get stuck down a well or something. It wasn't a chin up I had to do to get out but proud of myself that I didn't need help like some of the others.

We were shown other entry/exit points, different torture traps to kill the unwary who may have stumbled on them and different weapons also used. It has been done well. We then came to the shooting range where people could buy bullets and shoot some targets. I didn't want anything to do with it, but others couldn't wait. I must admit when I heard the first bang, it freaked me out, it was so loud and it bought back memories of a cousin's suicide so I was a complete mess by the end of about 50 bullets being shot off. I honestly didn't know it would have that effect on me.

It was then our chance to try out the tunnels. About 6 of the group took the chance and down we went following a guard. Every 20m or so there were exit points but we all went the 100m they have open for tourists. Had to bend over for most of it, some parts crawl through and there was a section we had to jump down. Hot and sweaty by the end of it but glad I had the chance to do it. They had herbal tea waiting for us at the end and then back on the bus for our ride back to Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon as the locals still call it.

Time to freshen up before we met to go to dinner at a restaurant called Lemongrass. We were able to go to their rooftop to get a view of all the lit up Christmas decorations on the street which were so beautiful. There were so many people out, it was hard to believe it was a midweek night. It felt like a Friday or Saturday. I headed back to the markets for my first shopping attempt with barganing in a while.

Ho Chi Minh City has been a great surprise to me. I have really enjoyed my time here and feel that I could have longer but I'm glad at least I did have the one extra day before the tour began.

By the way, I have finally learned to use chopsticks. I set myself a goal of using them and I have now gone 2 days with using them at meals. My other goal is not to eat any western foods. Half the group had french fries with their lunch today but I refrained.