Our final Vietnamese destination, Saigon, took us most of the day to get to. The bus journey was fairly uneventful other than the fact Laura needed the toilet half way. The bus drivers were refusing to stop the bus for her but after some forceful persuasion they finally pulled over. Laura and Sarah then had to hop through some overgrown area to find somewhere for a nature toilet. For those of you reading our blogs you will realise going off the beaten track in Vietnam is not the best idea. The driver chased after us and ended up having to ask a local if we could use their toilet. Needless to say it was a pretty scary moment and we were glad to get back to the bus safely!

After that the bus continued and we arrived in Saigon later that day. After dropping our bags off we headed straight off for a wander around the city. The city is so bustling and lively, it has a great atmosphere. Our hotel was right in the middle of the bar area so we only had to walk for 20 seconds until we were on a busy street with lots of people drinking and having fun. We wandered around, had some food, and then realised that after our early start we were ready for bed!

We woke up and decided to do a tour of the city. We started by going to see Notre Dame cathedral. It's not quite as impressive as its French counterpart, but it's nice enough. Next door to that is the Saigon central post office. Normally, especially in the UK, we don't get that excited by post offices, but we were assured it was worth a look. It's a huge building, beautifully constructed in the French colonial style. Not sure its a highlight of the trip, but was worth it for the huge portrait of Ho Chi Minh at the back.

The tour continued with a trip to the Reunification Palace. This is where all of the US personnel left Vietnam while kicking people off the sides of the helicopter at the end of the Vietnam war. It was interesting to see as it isn't a palace as you expect (it was only constructed in the 60's). It was interesting to see the large basement set up for running war operations and the other modern features you don't get in every other palace (these include a cinema and a casino!).

There was also an interesting display down in the basement which included a photo gallery showing the story of Vietnam's reunification as well as a video showing how it all came about.

After this, we headed up to our final stop of the day, the War Crimes Museum. As the name suggests, this isn't really a barrel of laughs. It had lots of the normal interesting things you get at a museum including some of the weapons used and a load of planes and tanks outside. However, on the inside it was almost entirely dedicated the the terrible use of 'Agent Orange' during the Vietnam war. If you don't know, this is the chemical the Americans used to kill off thousands of Vietnamese people. However, it is now known that this causes huge deformities in the generations of the survivors and is still affecting people today. This was a real eye opener to what went on and the human cost of it all. They showed photos of hundreds of people affected - not for the squeamish! It was horrific really to see what people are still going through three generations later.

We left there in a very subdued state and ended up having an early night after a very long days sightseeing.

After the previous days sombre end, we were looking for a little light relief. We found it in our trip down to the Mekong Delta. It really was a beautiful part of the world and we saw a floating market, a demonstration on how they make the rice paper all their spring rolls are wrapped in, a honey bee farm and then had a very relaxing rowing boat trip down the stream. This was a fantastic, relaxing day - just what we needed!

After this, we headed out for a few drinks which turned out to be a few more than a few. Needless to say we rolled in a bit later than we should have considering our 6:00am start for the bus to Cambodia.

Our bus driver arrived at the hotel on time, just as we were eating our breakfast. We then had to pay and round up all the bags. Eventually, 15 minutes after he arrived we poured ourselves onto the bus and collapsed into a stupor for the six hour journey to Phnom Penh.

Vietnam has been a totally different experience in comparison to the rest of the Asian countries we've visited. Everyone speaks English and its so geared up for tourism. This makes our life very easy, but unfortunately with all this it feels like you never really see the 'real' Vietnam. It seems to be the way we expect Thailand to be (very touristy, a bit like an Asian Costa Del Sol) which is a real shame. However, it's still a really amazing place to visit and you can definitely stray off the beaten track and see more real life if you search for it. Get there quick before it's too late!