You would have thought that nothing is on time in Asia but when our pickup for the night bus to Vietnam was 40 minutes late we started to worry a bit! Luckily the hostel staff were right and there was 'no need to worry' and we didn't miss the bus. It seats were horrible but ours were better than some people as in true Asian style they had over booked the bus so some were on the floor for the 20hour journey!!

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at about 11am and walked up and down the main street trying to find our hostel, people sending us in all directions until someone told us the right way. It was down a maze of alleys behind the main street. Here we could see in to a lot of people homes, most with open fronts but just consist of one or 2 rooms but have everything you need. The streets are dirty but the houses are kept clean and several people were cooking street food in the alleys, although Vietnamese food doesn't look as appetizing as Thai food. The guesthouse is brand new and really nice, we are all in a room together which is nice too. Once we settled in we decided to go the War Remnants Museum. It was mainly pictures on display with a brief explanation which meant it was easy to look around, although a lot of the pictures were very disturbing and upsetting you didn't want to look at all of them. They included photos from the war and crimes against Vietnamese civilians including children and pictures of victims of orange agent, the chemical America used to destroy the jungle, farms and countryside in Vietnam. It was very sad how it is still affecting children born today who receive no compensation. Military weapons and machinery such as tanks were also on display. We walked back from the museum and this was when we had a real look at the traffic in HCMC. It is absolutely crazy! There are 4 million motorbikes! To cross the road you have to slowly walk across making sure you give enough time for them to go round you. We are finally getting the hang of it though!

Later in the evening J began to feel unwell so we had a quiet night. Unfortunately J woke up feeling even worse and wasn't well enough to visit the Chu Chi Tunnels. Rachel still went with Darius and Toby. It was a good day with lots of information on how Vietnam won the war. The original tunnels were tiny; they have been doubled in size for foreigners as we are 'fat' according to our tour guide, who was actually born in the tunnels. Even doubled in size they were still tiny and claustrophobic. It was surprising that 16000 people lived in the tunnels and that they stretched 200km long. There was living areas which you could stand up in but the tunnels were too small for the Americans to fit in. We found out all the techniques used by the VC to trick the Americans which showed how clever they were. There was the opportunity to shoot some guns used in the war but the noise was pretty scary we didn't fancy it. It was a shame J couldn't make it as he had wanted to do it, maybe there will be another place in Vietnam. When we arrived back at the guest house, J had slept for the whole day and was feeling better. We all went out for dinner in the city before getting ready for our early get up to Mui Ne. We will be travelling a lot on Vietnam as we are short on time, so we have lots of early mornings ahead! We will have to save our resting for Bangkok where we have booked a hotel with a roof top pool -o yeah!