Good morning Vietnam!

I cant beleave how close Cambodia & Vietnam are but the difference is huge! Vietnam is so much more westernised & catered for tourists there are a lot more westerners here still not as many as i would have expected. First impression it looks like a great place for shopping there are big malls with water fountains in. Everything in the shops is organised so perfectly & they can tailer an outfit to fit in like 5mins. However the money (Dong) is of low value $100 is 1 million dong it is so confusing to work out & they have coins & notes for the same amounts & the 2000 look like 200, 000 even the Vietnamise get it confussed.

Soon as we got to Vietnam we were greeted by news of the typoon all the vietnamise didnt seem to know anything about it, nic was in a panic saying we had to book flights out to hong kong straight away (she read the wrong news bulletin on internet & got the one for the great typoon of 97) & when we asked any vietnamise about the weather they jst said it will be sunny tomorrow! Our new tour guide Ha a vietnamise girl said we have no need to worry & she can detect a typoon so if one comes we can jst run great that fills me with confidence! I am impressed by the Vietnamise music taste so far the bars weve been in have played My Chemical Romance & RATM together with the top of the world & happy birthday!

We went on a bike ride well sat in a chair at the front of bikes which little old men half the size of us pedelled around it was pretty scary they jst drove straight across islands with traffic coming at you honking from all directions not the most relaxing of experiences. We saw the market, notre dame, chinese temple which they were selling cute little sparrow like birds in cages outside later i found out these were not for pets but for supper! I also saw dogs for sale in cages i do hope these were for pets. Went to museum of war crimes this was another disturbing experience especially the photos of how agent orange effects current generations still & photos which journalists had captured of victims of war & how war can turn people into such animals.

Went to Cu Chi tunnels i imagined this to be yet another disturbing experience as it was where the vietnamise hid from americans during the war but actually it was a real highlight. We got to explore the tunnels which were amazing they were so small & it was so dark & hot in there. The entrances were so well hidden you couldnt see them even if told there was 1 right by you. We saw how to make wine from rice its absolutly disgusting even if you mix a shot of the stuff with a litre of spite you cant mask the taste.

We went on a tour to coconut island which i was very excited about since travelling i have developed a great passion for coconut juice so visiting coconut island was like Homer in the land of chocolate. There was coconut juice, coconut candy, the huts were made from coconuts, gifts from coconuts loved it!