We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City after a 7 hour bus trip from Cambodia.

After checking into a hotel we headed to book some buses and trains for the next leg of our journey. We were shocked at how expensive the train tickets were though, and quickly left when the lady told us they were 160 pounds each! We had been so used to everything being so cheap! We headed into the city to see the An Dong market and to get our bearings - the prices here were pretty steep too....then the penny dropped; we hadn't been counting the 000's correctly and realised that the train wasn't so expensive afterall, at a mere 16 pounds, for a 14 hour trip with a bed! We think we are slowly getting there with the money now, though!

The next day we did a walking tour of the city, courtesy of the Lonely Planet. We saw the Ben Thanh market and Street market, Fine Arts Museum, Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Post Office - A hugely grand French Style building, built in 1886 (the postcards are on their way).

We then went for lunch at the famous Pho 2000 noodle restaurant, where Bill Clinton ate! We both tried the national dish of noodle soup, which was yummy. Afterwards we headed to the Dan Sinh market, which is the War surplus market. You can pick anything up from Zippo lighters, army helmets and dogtags to gas masks, army badges and field stretchers! Very strange!

The nexct day we visited the Chu Chi tunnels, where the Vietnamese hid from the US soldiers during the war. The network of tunnels is 250km in length and has three tiers, including living areas, storage facilities, weapons factories, kitchens, and hospitals! The Viet Cong lived under the ground for 25 years! A section of the tunnels has been made larger, for western tourists to fit in - the original entrance holes were so small, only 60cm by 80cm! So, with a hole big enough for our bums, we got to squeeze through 30m worth of the tunnel, which was very dark, very hot and very small and claustrophobic! There was no way to turn back, so you had to keep going! It must have been horrible to live in those conditions! We then stopped for a quick lunch of tappioca, which is what the soliders lived on.

After our humble lunch, we headed back to HCMC to see the War Remnants Museum (or the American War Crimes Museum, as the locals call it!). The museum had lots of photos on display, taken during the war, of soldiers and locals, hostages, and victims of torture and chemical bombs. There was also a replica building of the Tiger Cages, which is where political prisoners were held to be interrogated, tortured and often killed. It was really interesting, but very biased!