Vietnam hurrah! We'd been excited to come here for a while now. We'd heard good things about the food :).
 
We arrived late in the evening and we were helpfully directed to our guest house by a friendly local. The guest house was down a very narrow pathway which split off into numerous other paths in different directions. There were lots of people going about their business where they had turned the front of their house into a little shop, restaurant or guest house. Ladies with their traditional Vietnamese pointy hats were sat along the path cleaning vegetables or butchering meat to sell on their little carts. With the smell of incense and noodles in the air we were happy to be here.
 
The next day we went off for a bit of sight seeing. We visited the Reunification Palace, a 1960's building built to be South Vietnam's Presidential Palace. This was until communist tanks crashed through the gates in 1975 when Saigon surrendered to the North. The building remains just as it was on that day. Large conference and dining rooms as well as rooms for planning plus an underground bunker. Not hugely exciting. Tom mostly liked the big tanks and helicopter on the roof!
 
We then visited the War Remnants Museum. Documenting the atrocities of the war including a very large display of photographs of the victims of the war with commentary from the photographers at the time. Harrowing and absolutely heartbreaking. A very anti American slant on everything but no getting away from what the photos depicted. There was also an entire floor dedicated to the effects of Agent Orange and other chemicals used by the Americans during the war including many graphic photos of severely deformed babies. I had to take some time out after a while and have a sit down as it was all a bit too much. Before coming here I didn't know too much about the war in Vietnam. I certainly had no idea at the extent of the use of agent orange (18.2 million gallons were sprayed) and the terrible long lasting effects it is still having on generations down the line today. It's thought up to 500,000 babies have since been born with birth defects. I was also extremely shocked at just how many civilians were killed with apparent numerous instances of massacres of civilians by the Americans. 
 
History lesson over for the day we headed over to see Notre Dame cathedral. We didn't go in as it was late Sunday afternoon so full of people. Took a few snaps and then went in search of food.

Alex and Prodge had told us we had to find some Bun Cha and spring rolls to eat as they were delish! They didn't disappoint! We found a nice little place with a huge menu. I ordered Bun Cha which is Vietnamese rice noodles with salad, mint and other herbs, pork patties, chopped peanuts and a sauce made up of fish sauce, chilli and sugar for you to pour over and mix up altogether. Absolutely amazing! Technically you're supposed to pick up a bit of everything with your chopsticks and dip it in the sauce. This is a bit too faffy for me when i'm hungry! Tom had Pho Bo or beef noodle soup, also another popular dish as well as some fresh spring rolls which were full of prawns, noodles, herbs and salad. Yum!!

As it was raining we spent the next day planning what we'd do for the next month and trying to find more tasty food ;).