Vietnam. Saigon / Ho Chi Min City.

After a morning sunbathing around the pool in Hoi An, we took a short flight to reach Saigon. Our hotel wa the scabbiest one we'd been to but was in a good location. It was really strange to be back in another huge city like Hanoi again. The hoards of scooters and beeping were both back again. The city was huge too and a lot more westernised than any other city we'd been to in Vietnam. In their evening we went to a sky bar for some drinks and the view over Saigon was amazing, just a shame that the windows were so dirty as it showed up in my photos! We went to happy hour drinks, but got there too late and paid 334000 dong (£10) for a very strong champagne cocktail! Definitly uk prices and a big jump from the prices we'd been used to, but definitly not expensive. 

For dinner we went to a pretty local place for some pho. It was a pho restaurant which is famous for Bill Clinton visiting when he toured Vietnam. It was called pho 2000 and obviously only served pho, but it was great. The frozen yoghurt in the bar next door was even better though!

Our second day in Saigon was spent visiting the Cu Chi tunnels. These tunnels used by the Vietnamese during the war. The area could not be taken by the Americans as the Cu Chi people fought hard and hid and lived during bombing raids in a vast network of tunnels. It was a very strange place and our guide who had fought with the Americans against the communists explained how a lot of the things we saw were inaccurate and had been exaggerated by the communists to make then seem more impressive. It was a Sunday when we visited and it was very busy. There were a lots of tourists there from Asia, many Malaysians and Chinese. There was an old American tank which these guys were loving clambering on and having their photos taken and playing with the gun. We saw how the people lived and how they made weapons out of old bombs and all the horrendous boobie traps that they invented and laid for the Americans. We also then saw the tunnels and went through one. The tunnel had been widened twice to fit the fat westerners through, but it was still tiny. It was horrible, I didn't think I could do it as it was so hot and humid down there. The tunnel was maybe 70cm high and 50cm wide. A hands and knees job. I would not have liked to have gone in one the original size! I could manage the full 100m tunnels and had to get out half way. Horrible! An amazing feat of engineering though. 

On our way back we did a double war whammy and went to the war crimes museum. It was a really interesting but sad and eye opening. It was obviously very anti American and showed photos of the brutality of the Americans in the war and the war crimes which had been committed. It also focused heavily of the use of Agent Orange and it's affects. Agent Orange was a defoliant sprayed wiely on forested areas in an attempt to prevent the hiding of weapons and communist troops. It contained a very powerful chemical which has caused birth defects ever since. The US has compensated it's own troops for their side effects and birth defects of their own children, but refuse to do so for the Vietnamese. Very sad place to visit. 

On day three we sad goodbye to some of our party and welcomed a new girl. (Yay means there are three girls again and we get to alternate having a room to ourselves!) This morning we took a bus ride to the Mekong Delta to have a boat ride around the islands. The boat we had was a traditional Vietnamese boat with eyes painted on the front. This was historically done to scare away crocodiles, but now there are hardly any crocodiles but they still so it. We sailed up the river and past the houses of the people living on the river. I found this the best part of the boat trip. I loved seeing how the people lives right over the water and how their houses were built with so many extensions and higgldy piggldy levels. It was amazing. 

We then sailed across to visit some of the islands. Not as small or remote as I had been expecting, they were all pretty large islands that looked just like the mainland! 

First we visited a fruit producing island and walked around the gardens. I learnt that a loofah is a plant! It comes from inside a dried out fruit, and underneath the hard shell is the loofah! Amazing! We tried the fruits whilst being serenaded by some interesting music. Some very abstract, or completely made up on the spot, I'm not sure! I tried jack fruit for the first time, which I've seen all over Asia including in the temple in Chiang Mai. It is a relative or durian and doesn't smell as bad, but was still a bit stinky, but tasty. 

After this we visited a coconut sweet processing house. The sweets were amazing and we saw how they were made and then wrapped ridiculously fast by the group of girl workers!

After this we visited a new farm, but was more just a cafe selling honey. But there they had a snake which we could hold! Of course of did! It was a reticulate python. Just a juvenile, but still pretty big!

We then took a rowing boat back to our boat through a small waterway. We were rowed by some old ladies! It was more what I was expecting the Mekong Delta to look like, small and leafy. 

We then had lunch at a very local place in the river. I had the set menu of elephant eat fish. Never again! We shared it between five of us and it came out whole, scales and all and was not the nicest fish. Definitly a river fish! Had a amazing evening of not going out and watching TV and eating in bed. Just what me and my room mate needed before our early start to bus it to Cambodia!