We had heard that Saigon wasn't as nice as Hanoi and a lot more hectic so were not entirely looking forward to this leg of our trip; at one point we almost considered swerving it altogether! It might be that we were fortunate with the position of our hotel, and perhaps we had now acclimatised to vietnam but we really loved this city. So far we had booked our accommodation based on online reviews so we took a chance when booking this one with not even so much as a write up! My theory was right - it was a brand new hotel and the few visitors had not given it a review. We were in an excellent position just off an attractive boulevard comprising plush hotels, designer shops and restaurants. The hotel was cheap but of course modern and very clean. South Vietnam is catholic as well as buddhist so the city had plenty of Christmas decorations throughout the city which made us feel at home. The people here seemed different somehow to the north; perhaps a little more modern, open minded and less obsessed with the late ho chi Minh? However our visit to the war remnants museum contradicted this opinion.

On our first morning we visited the presidential palace. The original palace built by the French had been bombed during the American war by a Vietnamese double agent. He was sent to bomb the Viet Cong but instead attempted to assanite the South Vietnamese president by bombing the palace instead. The president survived and in 1967 a modern palace was built in its place. I found this building particularly interesting as it was a change from the usual palaces you see elsewhere. The palace built in a modern style for its time s in a 60's style still with most of the orginal furnishings. There was even a gambling room and on the top floor, a helipad and entertainment room. A bunker was located in the basement where the south vietnamese planned their operations against the Viet Cong. The same afternoon we headed to the war remnants museum which illustrated and told of the atrocities commited by the Americans during the war. Although I'm sure it was probably true we thought it was a shame to only show one side of the story. The museum was pretty shocking and even had deformed foetus's as a result a chemical called 'orange agent' which the Americans sprayed over parts of Vietnam to kill of their farms subsequently cutting off their food supply. This 'orange agent' was to have many side effects as we saw.

On our second day we arranged a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels about 2 hours outside the city where the Viet Cong lived, fought and hid during both the Indochine war with the French and the American war. The tunnels were fascinating and must have been almost impossible for enemies to infiltrate. There were underground hospitals, kitchens and plenty of horrific and well thought out booby traps. In places they had made the tunnels so narrow that normal sized Americans couldn't physically fit through. Before heading back we were given the opportunity to shoot an AK47. Amy passed but I had a go and managed to hit the target!