This blog actually starts in Hue which is half way down the coast of Vietnam. The maps didn't recognise this so we're having to include it in this Saigon chapter.

Anyway, we only had a day in Hue, but it is only a small town and was easily covered in that time.

Firstly we saw the forbidden purple city, the residence of the old Vietnamese monarchy. I guess it is modelled on the Beijing equivallent, but was is a significant state of ruin. Never the less it still retained what was obviously once an impressive place. More interestingly we visited the famous pagoda in Hue. We forget it's particular name, but it is one of the most recognisable images of Vietnam. It is also the home temple of the monk that set himself on fire in protest at government mistreatment of Buddhist Monks. There is a famous photo of this monk sat in the lotus position completely aflame, (as featured on the Rage Against The Machine album cover). The car that he used to drive to Saigon for this protest is also in the picture. We saw the very same car which is now an exhibit at the temple.

We had one night in Hue before we were off again to the station for our 21 hour train trip down the coast to Saigon itself. The scenery during the morning was excellent, curving around the bays and giving panoramas of the coast. This time we had an old Vietnamese couple in our berth with us. They were friendly enough, but chose to sleep the day away. This meant that they then were awake all night. This proved a little annoying as we then found it difficult to sleep. They talked all night and were in and out of the compartment regularly, leaving the door open each time. Poor Sharon hardly slept at all.

We also had our first truely disgusting meal on this train. It was foisty and gristly. The boiled rice was the only edible part, and even that only just! We arrived in Saigon at 6.30am, very tired and glad to be at the end of the line.

Saigon proved to be just as busy as Hanoi, even at that early hour. It was also really hot and sticky. We made it to our hotel without too much fuss and propmtley showered and slept.

We found Saigon to be quite dissappointing. There was little in the way of culture and the oppressive heat made even the easiest tasks difficult. Still, we did our best to make the most of our time there.

It was Stephen's B'day and as such a celebration was required. We had KFC for lunch, (a real treat after the poor train food!) and a swanky Japanese restaurant for our evening meal. We chose a set menu and carefully picked our Sushi and Sashimi selections so there would be no surprises. But, lo and behold, half way through out came the snails, complete in their shells with nought but a cocktail stick to pluck them out with! This posed a dilema, as we are constantly trying to appreciate new foods and ideas, we both felt an obligation to try them. This was pushing the boundaries as we all know snails are not very appetising to look at and less appetising to think of eating! Sharon went first and declared them not to be as bad as she had thought. "Kind of bacony, but chewy." I followed, after much mental preparation. It was like a chunk of tyre rubber, nothing like bacon! But, we had tried it, never again though!

We saw the few remaining sights the following day. The reunification Palace, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Peoples Communist headquaters and various Ho Chi Minh statues! That was about it for Vietnam, flying to Siem Reap in Cambodia the following day, much to our relief.

Vietnam was an interesting experience, but we had tired of the constant horn blowing, traffic, touts and heat. There was nothing but hassle when venturing out and the pollution had started to destroy our throats! We can truely say, Been there, done that!