I arrive in the very early hours of the morning and go straight to my hostel and bed. To be woken up at 6am by some very loud girls, zipping, un zipping, chatting, re zipping, chatting, zipping. So again, nice and early start! Shower, dress and head off to walk around this amazing city. I meet a lovely auzzie girl whilst attempting to cross the crazy streets and we continue our wander together! Firstly we aim towards the war museum and come across a lovely green park in the middle of all the motorbike madness. A cut through the park and we stumble across a Vietnamese salsa class- very interesting. After watching for a few minutes we continue on our mission to head to the war museum. The war museum is a collection of photos, uniforms, weapons and stories from the Vietnamese war. Even though it's very biased (to be expected) its really eye opening to see some of the horrors from the war. A couple of quite disturbing hours there and we leave for a couple of drinks at a new bar that has opened around the corner. Then we go to the royal palace. Quite disappointing as the word palace has connotations of grander and elegance. Nope. This is an 80s very communist inspired building. Lots of concrete and squares, but a walk around and a little buggy ride through the grounds and it's ok. Most famous for its part in the Vietnamese war when it was conquered by the south to declare independence. Lunch time- some lovely noodles at a little restaurant. A stop at the french colonial cathedral and back to the hostel for a rest and street dinner... Noodles!
The circus was in town so after dinner people from my hostel and I go to watch. Slight disappointment as we realise, not so much a circus as an acrobatic Vietnamese interpretation of Romeo and Juliet! It was a strange show, but a nice evening- and many laughs. One girl in the "circus" was "juggling" 1 ball (all the others had 3) and as we watched her wondering why she only had 1 ball...she dropped it. It was hilarious. After the circus and long day of walking i went back to the hostel for an early night.

The next day was a trip to the cuchi tunnels (tunnels that the viet cong dug and lived in during the war). Even though the trip was very touristy and very biased again it was still really interesting to see how these farmers lived in tunnels and the traps they set up for the US soldiers. back to the hostel and we head to urm pizza hut for dinner (I know, I know... But sometimes noodles gets a bit boring!) and then we head into town for a night out. Whilst enjoying some drinks at a little street bar there was a drive by gun shot not more than 50metres away. People went running to find out what happened but we stayed at the bar. I don't think anyone was hurt! So after this excitement we head back to the hostels (I had a new hostel as the previous one had over booked and I was sent to their sister one). Next day- Mekong delta trip to phnom penh.