JK - Today we flew to Saigon. A wonderfully busy and bustling city with a slight air of grand colonialism to it - but in a good way.

While everyone else started the city tour Tom and I visited the Atlas Offices. Atlas are an outsourcing partner of Shepard Robson and do a lot of drawings for them. Thach (who has worked closely with Tom on a couple of projects) took us out for lunch. We then had a tour of the office, it was a little like the Western boss coming over to check on the team, but they were all quite sweet and it was good for Tom to have met them.

We then caught up with the group at the War Remnants Museum, which documents with photos and newspaper articles the horrors of the Vietnam War. The top floor showed the works of photojournalists that died during the conflict including Larry Burrows and Robert Capa. The photos were incredible and it is hard to believe they got some of the shots they did with film cameras - we are all so used to digital these days that when you remember the equipment that they used it makes the photos all the more amazing. Many of the photos on other floors left us feeling numb as they showed the effects of 'Agent Orange', what it did then and the effects it continues to have on the Vietnamese people today. Horrific, but not something people should forget, so an important reminder that the effects of war go on.

Next stop was the Reunification Palace. It was built in 1966 to serve as South Vietnams Presidential Palace, but is now used to welcome state dignitaries, yesterday for instance it was closed due to a visit from the Laos leader. In April 1975 communist tanks (now on display) crashed through the gates of the palace when Saigon surrendered to the north. All the glitzy state rooms are wonderful, but for me the most interesting was the network of tunnels in the basement. Think Churchill's Cabinet War Rooms, but Vietnam style. At the end of the tour was a wonderfully old fashioned and patriotic (propaganda) film about the Vietnam War and the history of the palace, but isn't all that part of the experience?

Next a quick stop to look at the outside of Notre Dame (yep) Cathedral - surprisingly enough this was built by the French and looks like a slightly(!) inferior pink Paris Notre Dame.

In the evening most of the group when on a cruise up the Saigon River. It was a cruise that included food and traditional music and dancing all for $18 - what a bargain.... anyway it sounded terrible to a few of us, so Denise (because sadly Simon is in hospital due to a terrible allergic reaction) Victoria, Tom and I headed to the Rex Hotel for some very expensive cocktails (amazing setting) and then a meal in a fantastic restaurant set in a lovely garden called Nha Hang Ngon. Unsurprisingly, the meal cost less than the cocktails - and this included a few Saigon beers to wash it all down with!

Saigon is amazing, just the word conjures up weird and wonderful images in the imagination. I think it is a truly fantastic and vibrant city, I wish we had more time here.