Hi,

So we are in the former head quarters of the US army, Saigon that is now called Ho Chi Minh City named after the former leader who united the country. Similar to Graham Taylor but in love not hate!

 I am now a certified open water scuba diver and looking forward to hooking up with Nicola's brother Graham so I can teach him a few things. Did the three day course which meant 5 dives and an exam that took thirty minutes for our instructor to tell us the answers. Very tricky stuff. The rest of the time it rained in Nha Trang so it was a good time to do it as there is nothing else to do if the weather is bad. Nicola came with me the last day to snorkel and had to do it in thunder and lightening while I was oblivious to it at 18 meters down. She saw some amazing sea life so it was worth it.

After an easy bus journey south we spent 2 nights in MuNei, a small fishing and beach resort with much better weather. Apart from the time spent being eaten by mosquitos we had a nice time just relaxing on the beach and doing nothing. All this stress became too much and we felt we should leave for the city so here we are in Saigon.

 The city is very loud and busy and we are staying with a family in their only guest room overlooking a busy tourist street. At night it seems like we are sleeping in the middle of the road. We've visited a museum which has lots of graphic photographs and details of the war including pickled foetuses from women affected by the American chemical warfare. Pretty sick stuff and very one sided but still really interesting. Today we went to the CuChi tunnels which the farmers used as protection against the bombing and also as headquarters for their guerilla campaign. Got to crawl through a 30 meter section of a tunnel in the dark which was pretty hard work and it had been enlarged for tourists so can't imagine how people would have spent all their time down there.

It's Nicola's birthday tomorrow and we're heading off on our last trip in Vietnam to the Mekong Delta which will end up in Cambodia in 3 days time.

Thanks for the messages and keep them coming. Especially birthday messages for Nicola because no matter how hard i've tried she's not satisfied with just my efforts and i need some help!