We arrived in Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) after a pleasant overnight-sleeper bus journey of 12 hours. Being the second largest city in Vietnam and a former capital, Ho Chi Minh seemed immediately less charming than elswhere. The streets were much busier and much less clean than Hoi An, Hue or Na Trang. We got in a Tuk Tuk and decided it would be best to find a hotel suggested by our Rough Guide book.

We arrived at a hotel called Madame Cuc (still lots of French influence in Vietnam). After a short nap, suggested by Sophie, we decided to make the most of the first day and visit the War Remnants Museum.

The museum was dedicated to the history of the Vietnam War. Outside the museum there were lots of old American fighter jets, tanks and bombs, a good example of the technology the Americans had, and the Viet Cong didn't. Inside the museum the first floor told the story leading up to the war. Vietnam had been under French rule for many years, and different communist/ non-communist factions had risen up against this regime, eventually being successful. There was then information about why the Americans felt it necessary to go to Vietnam. There were lots of quotations from American presidents, scholars, generals and politicians, as well as the constitution, all showing the conflicting arguments for going/not going to war in Vietnam. There were photos of the millions of people who protested against the war, from all around the world.

The next section was dedicated to how the war panned out. There were lots of quotations showing how Vietnam was to be used as a testing ground for new American arms. The worst of these was a chemical weapon called Agent Orange. The gas was sprayed indiscriminately over forests to kill any living plant material. The long term effects were terrible though. Anyone who came into contact with the gas had short term and long term illness. Children born of the survivors are born defected, so that there are a few million people now living in Vietnam with a disability as an indirect result of Agent Orange. We saw the tactics of the Viet Cong, how they dug large networks of tunnels, and how the war eventually ended. We planned a trip to see the tunnels for the next day.

That evening we had a nice meal and went to bed early. Unfortunately we didn't get much sleep though, a cockerel woke us up at 5am and didn't shut the f*** up for the rest of the morning!

The guide for the Cu Chi tunnels was hilarious. He talked on the bus for half an hour, cracking jokes but also talking about the various tactics of the Viet Cong and the history of the war. Before we got to the tunnels we stopped half way at a factory for making art, pots, furniture and other souvenirs. The factory workers were all victims of the war. Some had missing limbs as a result of land mines, the vast majority though were much too young to have been in the war, they were born to parents who had come into contact with Agent Orange. The art they made was beautiful. We stopped to see them working and then saw the finished products. The whole place was amazing.

When we arrived at the tunnels we were first shown round the tunnels used only for emergency hiding. The entrance was about a foot by a foot and a half wide. I just squeezed in (see photos), Sophie didn't try. She thought her hips might get stuck! We were next led round the traps set by the Viet Cong. Most were covered holes with various types of spikes at the bottom. The often covered the spikes in excrement to make sure peopled died of disease, if not from the wounds themselves. Eventually we got to the main tunnels. These were used, not for living, but for general movement and protection during bomb raids. The tunnels totalled 2-3km in length and had three layers. The deepest could not be reached by the strongest bombs, they were about 80 feet deep.

Back at the hotel we had another bad nights sleep, firstly in anticipation of the rooster and then actually because of the rooster. We couldn't move hotels as we had a bus ticket booked with them early next morning to Phnom Penh. Ended up being quite funny afterwards. Bus to Phnom Penh was really good, we got though the border smoothly and arrived at about 4pm. We both loved Vietnam and wished we had much longer there.