What was to be a 4hour bus journey quickly turned into 5 1/2 and furthermore the bus had been overbooked so 4 of us were prompty put onto another bus with less 'luxuries' per say - nonetheless on arrival within 30minutes of being in HCMC, we had already bumped into the remainder of the group again!! Such a massive city, yet everything is so close to eachother. With a group of 8 we were even luckier to manage to check into the same hotel especially considering it was nearing 9pm on a friday night! $12 a night, AC, hot water = all good!! Although being on the 6th floor up a flight of stairs is not so good...!

Anyways for Aza and I it was nice to be somewhat familiar in this city having been here for one night already when we arrived over 4weeks ago...we were staying less than a block away last time, in the 'backpacker' central area (much cheaper this time aswell!). We are down a tiny tiny alleyway yet it is absolutely jammed packed with other hotels (maybe 50) so it's incredibly easy to walk around and get comparisons....

Anyways day one first we had to sort out the mundane stuff such as exchanging traveller's cheques (can be complicated, especially in Mui Ne where they are non-existant. Here we had to beg for the bank to give us US$ instead of Vietnamese dong despite the fact that we will be leaving the country soon). Afterwards the group (minus the Aussie who had caught the traveller's bug) headed out to the Ben Thanh market which was still just as crazy as the first time we visited...This time even hotter though.I have no doubt that the temperature has seriously increased since the last time we were here...After another scumptious rice meal and ice coffee (yes we are breaking all the rules with street food and using ice haha) we strolled further afield and saw various attractions such as the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the colonial-style Post Office.

Of highlight however was the War museum (perhaps 'highlight' is the wrong word). This place is a must-see on a visit to HCMC - it has some incredibly graphic and gruesome photos taken during the American war and well as many facts and interesting information (and plenty of tanks etc). When we were there the place was absolutely packed with people yet it was all earrily silent given the incredibly sombre subject-matter. The museum sure allows you to see how the war affected so many local people and it is especially interesting from a different perspective not often available outside of Vietnam. Some stuff was absolutely horrific and incredibly sad. This nation sure has put up with enough attempts by other nations to take away whaty rightfully belongs here. One good aspect of the museum however was that there was a gallery dedictated to pictures drawn by schoolkids aged 8-12 on their impressions of the war and society today. All the pictures were incredibly uplifting and sure would serve as inspiration to anyone...

Anwyays with the heat seriously picking up we hunted out the apparent #1 place for icecream in HCMC, named 'Fanny'. Here the menu was absolutely massive, and having worked up an apetite 6 out of 7 of us all ordered half a litre of icrecream each with was very quickly consummed (and was fantastic aswell!!). Feeling guilty we strolled back to the market and all ended up sitting down and having another meal almost immediately haha. What? It was almost dinner-time, maybe 5pm...

By now we had figured out the nearest location of a 'Bia Hoi' joint which was absolutely bursting at the seems with people. The going rate? 10 000dong ($1 NZ) for 1.5L...good, but not the best! This stuff tasted a little funky though was still quickly consummed. The best part was that next door a women was selling small cooked crabs for approximately 50cents each which went down incredibly well with the beer haha. Later that night we also discovered a stall 20m in the other direction with sold rediculously-good-looking/smelling kebabs for another $1.5 = good times! This became our new routine for the remainding nights!

Day 2 - Sunday. 8am we had booked a half day tour for $5 each out the Cu Chi tunnels where much of the war was fought on this side of Vietnam. Despite the masses upon masses of other tourists, this place was incredibly interesting. We learnt about many tactics used by the Viet Cong against the Americans/ South Vietnamese people. They had a very complicated system of underground tunnels which were incredibly effective agâinst the enemy. They were used both as a fighting mechanism but also as homes to many families, elderly and children. They even had methods to hid the smoke from cooking so that it wouldn't appear from out of the ground (and so be a target by air). There were many traps and nasty-looking machanisms. A great highlight was crawling through 90m of the tunnels (there are 200km of them, usually 3m underground, some up to 8m). Although small, what we went through had been widened for tourists, and it also had the occasional light which made it far far easier to what it would have been...

Of highlight for the boys however would have been the shooting range. Surprise surprise! For $10 US you go to shoot ten bullets from an AK47 or M16. Aza so graciously allowed me 1 bullet, he had the remainding 9 haha. Judging from the grins on everyone's faces, this was well enjoyed!! Some choose to fire one by one whereas others simply let loose....

Back in HCMC by 3pm the boys raced off to have some KFC (we hadn't had breakfast OR lunch yet!) then had the afternoon to kill. Aza and I returned to the market to stock up on some bits and bobs then the evening was somewhat relaxed, each to his own, just catching up on emails or whatever.

This morning Aza and I posted an 8.5kG parcel back to NZ. We were given the option of $120US by air, taking 4weeks. Or $39 by boat, 2-3months. Or FedEx was charging $40 per 500gms. Simple choice - we chose the sea! Fingers crossed as this contains various suits, and rather 'nice-looking' stuff...I have heard of cases of it taking up to 5months...goodness knows where it goes in that time haha

Back at the hotel a group of 10 of us agreed upon a 3day tour through the mekong delta which will eventually take us into Cambodia! With such a large crowd we managed to get the price down to $41 each which was pretty good. Feeling chuffed we all set off to enjoy another afternoon in the Dem Sem waterpark! It was brilliant!! The park was massive, the rides fast (many new bruises now) and we virtually had it all to ourselves again!! Getting there and back was interesting: 8 of us crammed into 1 taxi (this would not be done back home!) and on the return we negotiated the local bus system which during peak rush hour was a lot of fun to observe! There is possibly no other city where you can see so many motorcycles at once. I hear this city has 8million of them alone...

We arrived back at the market (now night, stalls were set up outside) and enjoyed quite possibly the best BBQ seafood ever! The prices were excellent and the fish was amazing and so fresh. You name it, everything was kept alive until the last moment, even the frogs (I actually think they were still alive, still twitching when they were placed the charcoal, not nice to watch...). The dinner was somewhat tarnished when presented with the bill - they had sneakily added all sorts of extra charges, even doubling many of our meals (apparenly they are served as 'doubles' even if not mentioned on the menu)...Considering the food was so good we didn't really mind paying extra, though still felt a little ripped off. Otherwise it was perfect...

So now it is our last night in HCMC and tomorrow the Mekong awaits....Photos will come, as usual we are having difficulties uploading as it takes aaaaages (and other times the camera usually dies). The next blog will possibly be written from Cambodia, so until then, hope everyone is well...keep those comments coming :)