Saigon aka Ho Chi Min City was a 4 hour journey from Mui Ne. We heard that Saigon was a bit like Hanoi but bigger and busier, but upon driving through we found it a much more pleasant place and than Hanoi. Again our first job was to find a room and we did so in a small guest house that was situated on a really small back alley called Mrs Huy's. It was ran by a little old lady who I presume was Mrs Huy, it only cost us $12 for the room between the three of us and was really nice. As we wernt planning on staying in Saigon for too long, that night we set about getting the two trips that we wanted to do booked, one being the Cu Chi tunnels and the other being a 3 day tour on the Mekong Delta in which the boat takes you up the Mekong River to Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

The following day we were up early (7.30am) to get picked up for our trip to the Cu Chi tunnels... if you dont know what they are, they are a big network of underground tunnels that contained schools, hospitals, kitchens and living accommodation which the Vietnamese used to live and hide in during the Vietnam War. So after we arrived we got shown a video to give us a little backgound on the tunnels, then our guide took us aroung the jungle showing us the various tunnels, how they made them, and all kinds of information about the war and how they coped. After seeing the tunnels, you cant even imagine what it must of been like for them to live in the tunnels that were in places only 30cm by 70cm in size, for over 14hours a day! We were allowed to try and get down one of the original tunnels which was nearly impossible, and then later we were allowed to go underground and actually crawl through the tunnels which had been made slightly wider for us tourists, from one point to another. Whist undergroud you could come out after 40m, 60m or 100m, Lau and I both came out at the first opening! I dont usually get claustrophobic but even I had to hit the panic button under there! It really makes you realise what they had to go through and how much they suffered. When we returned from the trip we spent he remainder of the day shopping and checking out Saigon before leaving the following day for the Mekong Delta...