The border crossing from Cambodia into Vietnam was a pleasant surprise compared to the border control at Thailand - Cambodia. First of all the building didn't look shabby, it had air conditioning too and it was a dam sight cleaner. The one thing that always stood out at the Thai- Cambodia was the fact that the Cambodians had built their border control round a tree and you see the trunk going up through the roof of the building.

My initial thoughts was how much cleaner it was compared to Cambodia, I'm not saying its perfect but compared to Cambodia a vast improvement. The other things were the amount of mopeds doubled, it's mental, I don't know how we didn't hit one. Also it looked alot more built up, meaning it had shops, i didn't see too many shops in Cambodia most of the time it was dodgy converted tut tuts with a parasol attached selling food that had been cooked in the heat for days that you wouldn't eat if it was fresh.

The hotel is ok, the room is a bit small and we don't have the luxury of a window but we do have our very own mutant sized cockroach that lives under the bath. I locked us out of the bathroom so we had to call the hotel maintenance guy to come and have a look at the lock. His answer was to destroy it with his screwdriver, we can now get into the bathroom but after spending a day in Vietnam I already get the feeling that they will charge us for it.

The first Vietnamese meal i had was some kind of pork with prawns on cucumber, it was quite nice and with 5 small bottles of Saigon red beers it cost 212,000 dong which is approx £6. As it was last night with the Cambodian tour guide we had a few beers around the backpacker area of Ho Chi Minh city. It was a bit mental, one street we went down we were given a childs plastic chair and told to sit on the pavement with pretty much hundreds of other people. Then this guy takes your order and then disappears for a moment, returning with your drink. This system is all good until you need the toilet and you can't work out where you go or which bar you belong too.

Following morning I was up at 7am as I wanted to see some of the sights of the city. I had probably had my best night sleep since being away, I didn't sleep too well in any of the beds in Cambodia as I think they used a washing detergent that I had a mild reaction to. The first sight that I saw was the Revolutionary museum which for $1 wasn't that bad, it didn't really have that much stuff in it and also it appeared that they were doing some kind of wedding photo shoot inside the museum which was a bit random. I did however discover that we had just missed on the 19th March Vietnam's Anti-America day and wondered how they go about celebrating it. Upon leaving the museum we were truly fleeced for 3 coconuts, we didn't really want them the guy just forced them on us and then we didn't understand how much he was asking for, by the time we understood we had drank most it and had to pay a price that was a bit steep. I am finding that in Vietnam there is alot things that are given to you which you normally take for granted that they are free and then when the bill comes they are listed as a to "pay item" eg serviettes.

We went to the War Remnants museum next passing by the independence palace. I would probably say that this museum is one of the better museums I've been too. Although the content was horrific and sad it did have some really interesting stuff in there and the pictures were quite graphical highlighting the effects the war had on the people of Vietnam. I suppose the museum is based on the Vietnamese perspective so it would be interesting to see if America had there version. Strangely enough I also got the impression that the Vietnamese don't really like the Americans. The war museum closed for lunch at 12 and they were very demanding to get everyone out so that they could have their lunch, so we decided to get our lunch of which I glad we did as I had a bout of the trots again and had to take some Imodium. I don't think I'm ill as I feel fine I think it may be the hot weather.

After lunch we decided to walk over to the history museum to watch the water puppet show. At first they weren't going to perform the show as they needed 15 people and there was only 10 people seated, then they must have realised that they couldn't turn down the money and put on a show. It was ok, I wouldn't define it as a fine art, just a load of battered puppets thrashing around in the water to Vietnamese music. I've been told the puppet shows in Hanoi are better so I'll go and watch one there to have something to compare against.

On the way back we passed the People's Committee Hall, but we weren't allowed in, before I decided to go shopping in the Ben Thanh markets. I bought one souvenir but I had to go through an extremely awkward situation with the shop girl to get it. The Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh city seem quite forceful so as I was browsing the markets I saw something that I thought would be a good souvenir and before I know any better this market girl is on to me. She was badgering me to buy something and i felt tempted but what i didn't notice was she had deformed hands and didn't really have fingers. Im not sure what had happened to her but I thought this may have been the cause of Agent Orange, the harmful chemical that the Americans dropped during the war. Anyway I could see she was trying to rip me off so I told her no and that I wasn't interested, but the problem was I had the thing in my hand and couldn't give it her back as she didn't really have the ability to clasp it. To make things worse she then proceeded to block the front of her store so that I couldn't put it back myself. I managed to give the souvenir to someone else working nearby and proceeded to walk away, she then started to chase after me, trying to grab me and pull me back into her shop which I found really awkward. She dropped the price by half so to stop anymore awkwardness I bought it. Although i knew this may be the case i found out later tonight that I paid a few dollars more than I should which i know it isn't that bad, I just found her selling technique a bit abrupt and it didn't help feeling sorry for her.

Anyway I head to the Mekong delta tomorrow for another homestay with a Vietnamese family this time. I'm looking forward to the homestay as it should be interesting to see how they live and i'll be interested to see how it compares to the Cambodian homestay.