Ok, back to the HCMC explorations, aborted last time due to it being beer o'clock. Vietnam has a population of over 81 million, with 6 million in HCMC alone, resulting in about 3 and a half miilion mopeds trundling around the city. The driving is very haphazard and the only way to cross bury intersections is to walk very slowly (preferably with your eyes shut!) and the bikes avoid you. Dashing across is not an option as the locals do not know what to do then. The government has had a 2 child per family policy since 1983, but this is often only enforced in the urban centres, resulting in the population growing by about 1% every year. On our second day touring the city we visited The Jade Emporer Pagoda, which is filled with characters from both Buddhist and Taoist traditions made out of reinforced papier-mache. From here we went to the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, which quite honestly was very dull and a complete waste of time (Maidstone Museum is more impressive). The only interesting bit was the wedding shoot going on around us, with about 10 "brides and grooms" wandering around being photographed. On to the Fine Arts Museum and finally to the War Remnants Museum, which displays artillery pieces as well as photographs of torture and babies with birth defects caused by the US's use of defoliants like Agent Orange during the war. There were even 2 babies preserved in jars, which were definitely intended to tug at the heart strings. It was very enlightening to be given a perspective which differs greatly from the American one we see and hear so often in the West. Propoganda is an amazing thing. Included in the display was the famous picture of the little girl running naked from a napalm attack, with all her clothes having been burnt off. If any of you get the chance it is worth reading her life story, entitled "The Girl in the Picture", which has been published recently from Canada, where she now lives. As by now we had ventured quite a way from our hotel, we decided to get cyclos back. These are bicycle/seat contraptions which are pedal powered. We had to get one each and I drew the short straw and got the old bloke, who probably should have retired years ago. The whole experience was fairly humiliating as whenever we stopped (quite often due to it being rush hour) he had to dismount and push start the bike - really must do something about that diet! The only up side is that they have a countdown on traffic lights here, so he was at least able to get some sort of momentum going just before they changed. When we eventually got to our destination I felt so bad for the poor chap that I tipped him double the fare - still only 2 pounds. Another quirky aside is that reversing large vehicles play the "Lambada" instead of just beeping and the first time I heard this I wondered where it was coming from. Maybe we could get the theme tune to CSI played on all the SOCO vans back home! Our third day was spent on an organised trip around the surrounding areas, with a very nice tour guide called Dai. First stop Tay Ninh, which serves as the headquarters of one of Vietnam's most interesting indigenous religions, Caodaism. The Caodai Great Temple was built between 1933 and 1955 and has 2 million followers at present. It is influenced by Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, Christianity and many other religions. Well, I suppose if you are going to build a relatively new religion you may as well pilfer ideas from all the long standing ones. A lot of the beliefs have come from the spirit world through seances and William Shakespeare has even had some input from beyond the grave, although he obviously got bored as he hasn't been heard from since 1935. The temple itself is colourful and eclectic and what I would describe as slightly bonkers! Wait until you see the photographs, as we also got to witness a ceremony whilst there. After stopping for lunch we headed out to the tunnel network at Cu Chi. It became legendary during the 1960's for it's role in facilitating Viet Cong control of a large rural area only 30km from Saigon. At it's height, the tunnel system stretched to the Cambodian border, there being over 200km of tunnels in the distric of Cu Chi alone. The entrances to the tunnels are very small and the Americans were ineffective in ground operations. As a result they resorted to artillery and bombing raids, often using chemicals. The area was transformed into a moonscape and today craters are still clearly visible and all the trees are very small, being very young as the chemicals ruined the environment for many years. I was very brave and ventured into one of the larger tunnels, but even in these you had to bend double. I chickened out of any smaller ones, due to my dislike of confined spaces (as those of you who got stuck in a lift with me at Maidstone Police Station will be able to testify!) From there, back to HCMC in very cool air-conditioned bus......aaah. S xx