Saigon is a crazy, crazy place - mainly because of the mental amount of motorbikes there and a traffic system that reminds us of playing bulldog at school (think charging at each other and just seeing what happens)!

Our arrival in Saigon was on the back of the bikes and the half hour ride to the centre of town was a mixture of a real adrenaline rush, excitement and being down right frightened - all accompanied by a deafening orchestra of horns and sirens for background noise. Graham mostly loved it but found a very anxious look on Gemma's face every time he turned around - mostly the result of the fact that, having a brand new bike, Ba was a little heavier on the brakes to avoid any scratches!

The battle for space here makes driving in London seem like using empty country roads but somehow the Vietnamese have an unnatural level of spatial awareness and we arrived in one piece, only seeing one couple fall off on the way! The pictures really do not do it justice!

Saigon is a really busy, bustling modern city, with sights and sounds very much like Hanoi but on a much larger scale. We spent most our two days here just walking around to take in the city and its people in action. On our second day we paid a visit to the reunification palace which is a really cool 1960's building that used to act as the main government building and residence. What was interesting was that the building has been left untouched from the day the tanks stormed its grounds in 1975. This means it still has rooms full of war planning maps, 1970's phones and what would now be thought of as cool retro decoration!

There is so much in Vietnam that we haven't done that would have also liked to fit in. We're torn between going to these places now, because we'd be silly not to, and moving on to Cambodia now to experience as many new places as we can whilst away. We've rather half-heartedly chosen the latter option, but promised ourselves that we really will be coming back here......as soon as we can! It's a great country, with lovely people and we love it! Being rather disappointed that the price of flights to Phnom Penh appear to have shot through the roof lately, tomorrow we're back on the bus . . . oh, joy!