Hi!

I met my tour group on Sunday. There are only 4 other people on the tour - 3 girls of a similar age to me and a man of about 60. They are called Sally (from Melbourne, a midwife), Jessica (from Germany, Aldi store manager), Kate (from England, a lawyer) and John (from Greece/Canada, retired).

Kate and I got talking and we share a number of similarities. Her surname is Barker, she was bron at Hexham General Hospital, her brother is 24 and works for KPMG as an auditor, and she did an economics degree! How scary is that!! I also found out today that her uncle is David Barker (same name as my dad) the dentist of Hexham!! Kate only lived in the Hexham area until she was 3 and now lives in London.

The people in the group are lovely - we all get on well.

On the first day of the tour we went on a cyclo tour of Saigon. We went all over, starting at the war museum. The war museum was fairly graphic. There were photos taken from both side - some of them were horiffic with American troops killing women and children. There were also photos of the victims of Agent Orange (a gas which the Americans used to clear woodland so that they could see their targets better - but this gas also had serious affects on people). Agent Orange is still having affects today with people getting cancer and children being born disabled and with deformities. Its very sad and very scary that such a horrible weapon was used only 30 years ago......it makes me wonder about what weapons are being used in Iraq.

On the cyclo tour we also went to the post office which was interesting inside, and to Notre Dame cathedral (the 3rd Notre Dame I've been to).

After lunch Jessica and I got a motor bike out to a temple. It was a bit of an adventure as we would nver have found the temple on our own - it was up a little side street.

Yesterday we got up early and went to the Cu Chi tunnels just ouside Saigon. This was the tunnel system which the Viet Cong used to hide and fight against the Americans. The tunnel system was first used against the French war and was then expanded for the American war. The tunnel system was something like 250km long and on 3 levels! The tunnels are tiny! But a section has been made bigger for tourists to go into - even still I got a bit clautrophobic.

There were also displays showing booby traps (which normally didn't intend to kill people, just injure them), a kitchen, a hospital, cloth makers and weapon making. It was very interesting.

After that we got a bus down to the Mekong Delta (you will be pleased to hear that the roads in Vietnam are not as bad as in Cambodia, so this trip only took 3 hours!). On arrival we got in a boat and went around the canal system. It was lovely. We then got out and went for a bike ride around one of the islands saying hi to the children along the way. We also got to hold a python (very heavy! It ate a chicken per week), and try some local fruits (yum yum!).

Last night we stayed at a homestay along the river. We ate a delicious dinner of fish rolls, spring rolls, beans and pork and enjoyed a nice cold beer. After that we tried to get to sleep - which wassn't easy with boats going by and animals making noises!

Today we went to a floating market which was interesting. We also tried out some local sweets - coconut candy which was nice. I bought some but I'm not sure if I will eat it all up before I get the chance to send it home!

Off north tommorrow - to Dalat I think.

Take care.

Louise x.