Off to Vietnam for a month.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh Friday 25th after delayed flights leaving Perth, and missing connections in Kuala Lumpur. Not sure that I'm very happy with Malaysian Airlines. The seating seamed to be alot smaller than other flights - or have we just forgotten!

Ho Chi Minh city - not too crazy, like many Asian countries - lots of scooters on the road. Our hotel is quite nice with city views, and peeks of the river, and a nice easy walk to the river, and most places in the city to see.

We took a visit to the War Museum, I dont know how the locals still dont hate the US. Very sad. They have a whole room dedicated to the effects of Agent Orange.

After dinner on Saturday we went for a walk down "busy street". At night streets are blocked from traffic to allow families to wonder amongst entertainment and just enjoy the evening.

I booked a tour of the Mekong Delta before we left home. A private tour via Intrepid. So Monday morning, with not alot of information to go on, we were met at the Hotel by our guide - Minh, he was very knowlegable and funny with his commentry. The tour included - bus ride to river, boat across to an island to see the making og coconut sweets and honey. Had a taste of some "snake wine" that had not only a dead snake, but a star fish and gheko soaking in it! They looked liked they had been pickleing for a few years! IIt tasted like a rough gin! We then boated across to another province on the other side of the river for a traditional lunch, a tuk tuk ride to a canal, a paddle down the canal back to the boat, to head back to the bus for the ride back to the hotel. About a 5 hour day well worth it.

Tues 29th we went on a tour to the famous Cu Chi tunnels out of Ho Chi Minh. You here so much about these in the history books, but to actually see them is amazing. The tunnel we were able to climb through has acturally been raised by 30cm and made wider to fit tourists, with lights and ventilations. We could climb 15, 30, 45, 60 or 100m, Rob was in front of me and at the 30m mark he said I getting our of here, so I followed. Neither of us get claustiphobic but you just has this feeling doom. Imagine in the war they scrambled around these tunnels with no lights and could be met by a "tunnel rat" which was an small american soldier with a gun. In the area there is about 250 Km of tunnels. Most are still secret as they are still considered a good option during war. We also got to shoot an AK47 assalt rifle. You had to purchase a magazine of 10 bullets - so we shared a shot 5 each.

Our last couple of days were spent looking around Siagon (the locals call the inner city Siagon, and the whole area Ho Chi Minh city) looking at the markets, walking along the river in the evening. We spent one night going up the sky tower which is on the 47th floor of a building - it gives you a good perspective of how extensive the place is.