By 8:00 am we were ready and waiting to be picked up for a city tour. However, we didn't get picked up until almost 9:00 am. Our guide was a little disorganized but very enthusiastic, so we sat back in the bus and enjoyed the drive through our neighbourhood.

When everyone else was finally picked up and on board, we headed for the War Remnants Museum. The museum consisted of several sections. The first was a room of photographs taken during the Vietnam War, or the American War, as it's known here. It was very graphic. Each photo was captioned with an account of the event captured in the shot and the personal details of the people in the photo. Suddenly the war became less about history and much more about the people who lived through it.

The next section of the museum was an outdoor collection of tanks and planes used during the war.

After that, we visited the tiger cages - facsimiles of the prison cells occupied by so many people during the war.

We then saw a series of photos showing the after-effects of the war. This included pictures of children born after being toxically exposed, their limbs deformed or missing; and a series of 'before and after' photos showing people in the war, along with a "then and now" story.

The museum was very sobering, so next we headed to a more peaceful place - the Jade Emperor Pagoda, a very famous Buddhist temple with amazing artwork, wood carvings and peaceful grounds surrounding it.

Next, we visited the Disabled Handicrafts Market. We enjoyed the beautiful artistry and found it interesting to see the eggshell work and meticulous detail of Vietnamese paintings and sculptures.

Lunch was next on our agenda, so we went to Kim's Kafe. Connor and Tessa liked their "western" meal, and the company of a older couple from Quebec made it much more enjoyable.

Our next stop was Chinatown with a brief visit to the overwhelming Chinese marketplace. We split up - Barry and Connor went to look specifically at electronics, while Tessa and Margaret just wandered through the whole place. Barry and Connor returned with a $45.00 Ipod, so they were pretty pleased with themselves. Not to be outdone, Tessa asked to be taken to the store and got her own!

We jumped back on board the bus and headed to the Reunification Palace, formerly known as the Independence Palace. What was really cool about this building was the way it has been left essentially the same as that day in 1975 when a North Vietnamese Army tank broke through the gates, ending the Vietnam War. It's somewhat eerie to tour through, because it feels like everybody just got up and left one day. Well, that's because they did. The basement houses radio equipment, teletype machines, telephones, and typewriters all dating back to the 60s. The chairs in these rooms looked like they had just been sat in, and we expected to see a steaming cup of coffee on the desk in the War Room of the President. After touring through the basement labyrinth, we viewed a film that presented the other side of the War. In this film, the Americans were the invaders, unwanted, uninvited; it is a very different story from what we are used to. As usual, our time in Vietnam is making us all the more interested in researching history.

When we'd finished visiting the Palace, we made a quick stop at Notre Dame Church and the Post Office (an architectural marvel).

Our tour over, we headed back to our hotel where we met up with David and Claudia who had enjoyed their one-day trip to the Mekong Delta. We were happy to hear that, as we were going to do a two-day trip to the same place the next day. We said goodbye to them, as they were headed for Siem Reap the next day. Travelling with them had been wonderful and a nice break from just being in a group of four. After that, we went out for supper and made it an early evening, as we knew we had to get up early the next day.