Our first few days in Ho Chi Minh have been just a little hot! 37 degrees...lovely!

We arrived at 9pm Vietnam time in the middle of the Ho Chi Minh New Year celebrations. The taxi journey to the airport was a little hairy as there aren't any traffic lights but thousands of motorbikes driving along where they please! There appears to be absolutely no rules of the road at all, it's find an open gap and drive!!

We got to see most of the city in between the airport and our hotel though as we are right on the Saigon River. The place looks amazing. There are several big parks which all had celebrations for the New Year all lit up in neon lights. One park was just a huge buffet with meals being prepared by chefs from each of the city's hotels. It even had a waterfall suspended above the dancers.

Our first outing into the city was to visit the Reunification palace where the president and his mates lived for a while before the Americans came and made a balls of the place! It was amazing! Absolutely massive and there was no mistaking we were in a communist country as there was a huge banner of the emperor on the front! After that it was off to Notre dame cathedral. Yes there is another one! It is a catholic cathedral, which we found a little weird in a Buddhist country but apparently 10% of people are Christian. It was beautiful inside but it made us laugh a lot! Jesus had his own neon sign and Mary was surrounded by neon lights!!

Next was the post office, sounds boring but the building was gorgeous, to get some postcards sent. After that was the opera house and the people's hall which old Ho Chi Minh himself was perched outside. Well a statue of, anyway! The city was named after him when the Americans left because of his help liberating the city during the war. Then it was onto the shopping to get some more videos for the video camera! Our 4th full day and we have 200 photos and lots of video of mountains and stuff!

Following our little adventure around the town it was time to eat. We found a restaurant that looked quite small and traditional from the outside so in we went, however that was only the entrance. The lady took us in through huge oriental doors into the most amazing oriental restaurant ever. Traditional Vietnamese, food and all, we even ate the whole thing using chopsticks, rice and all, get us!!! We had to watch a little lady opposite us cause we had no idea what to do with anything so armed with our new knowledge (from the now affectionately named rice lady) we were off. The food was one of the most amazing meals we have ever had in a restaurant and the atmosphere was great although we felt a little odd being the only white people in there! It was only topped off by the price 12quid for a 2-course meal for the two of us!!

The next day we headed off equipped with private guide and driver to the cu chi tunnels build by the Viet Con the war. By hand they built 250km of tunnels by hand with 3 levels including living quarters. Amazing! They were really clever! For years the Americans didn't know where they were so could never find the Viet Con, they even build a base on top of the tunnels and could understand why they were being shot at in their beds at night! When they found out about them they tried napalm and chemicals to destroy the land so they couldn't eat and even sent dogs into the tunnels but the Viet Con started washing in American soap and leaving captured American uniforms around so the dogs were friendly to them! Then the Americans tried to get in the tunnels but were either killed by the most vicious booby traps or they got stuck because the tunnels were so tiny (although we both managed to fit into some of them!) The only way for the Americans to get to the tunnels was to collapse them using b-52 bombers but that only collapsed some. The people who own the tunnels have now expanded the entrances for tourists to go in them, we went for 100 metres down 3 levels to 8 metres below ground. It was amazing, there were also replicas of bunkers set up which we have lots of photos off. We could have shot an ak-47 but we ran out of time! Instead it was onto Tay Ninh temple.

This place was huge, a whole community for the Cao Dao religion which was an idealistic religion set up to unite religions of the east and west. It is made of Buddhist, Islam, Christianity and something else, which we've forgotten!!! The temple was huge and the disciples pray 4 times a day for 30 minutes. We were able to watch a ceremony. Inside the temple the floor has 9 steps signify the steps to heaven and the roof was painted with stars to signify heaven. It was the most colourful church we have ever seen! When the people join they stay normal for 5 years then they move up a step to get closer to god and get a coloured robe to represent one of the 4 religions. Every 10 years the move up a step and change hat! You would have to be very young. The leader has been there the longest; he's very old and only 7 steps up!! another 20 years to go for him!

After that it was back to Ho Chi Minh for more scrumptious food on the 12th floor of our hotel, the food and views were amazing, 3 courses for 9 quid, can you believe it!?