Good Morning Vietnam

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A 6 hour bus ride took us to Ho Chi Minh/Saigon city from Phnom Penh. The border crossing was fairly smooth taking just over a half hour in total. We managed to get a great room (in Phong hotel) right in the centre of H.C.M . city and in the backpacker district but down a quiet alleyway which was full of guest houses and restaurants. This meant that all of the cities main attractions were within walking distance of us. Normally we avoid people coming up to us trying to get us to come and look at a guesthouse but we had just sdenn a few nice but expensive and cheap horrible rooms nad we were tired of carrying our heavy bags so we followed him. Turned out to be a good idea as the place was lovely, I guess not everywhere nice can be in the guidebooks.  We visited a market Ben Thanh Market which is massive and in the centre of H.C.M. city, it sells all sorts of clothes, jewellery, electronicscetc. Its pretty hard not to buy anything as they literally try to drag you into their stalls but saying that its great fun and a must see.

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H.C.M. city is great value for visiting museums and sites in general with entry for an adult costing around 1 dollar. We visited the Reunification Hall which was formally the presidential palace. The free tour guide was excellent and you got to see the war room and tunnels underground. Nearby the War Remnants Museum provides a chilling insight into how the Vietnam war has affected the lives of thousands of Vietnamese and generations born after the war who had mutations as a result of chemicals dumped on the country during the war. Displayed here are weapons, tanks and planes from the war along with photographs of horrific injuries inflicted on people during the war. It was horrendous to watch and I confess to being deeply disturbed by it all.  Video shows played every couple of hours supplement the above. There are some very realistic mockups of the prisons used during the Vietnam war. Close to the war remnants museum is Notre Dame Cathedral. At the time we visited there was mass on so we didn't get to see the inside but its an impressive building from the outside. We also visited the Museum of Vietnamese History which is good but a bit hard to get the most out of without a guide to show you around but is still worth a visit.

A 6 hour bus ride took us to Ho Chi Minh/Saigon city from Phnom Penh

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There are plenty of day trips operating out of H.C.M. such as the one to the Mekong Delta and the Cu Chi tunnels. As time was short we decided to give the delta a miss and went on a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. At $5 this is a bargain although the entry fee wasn't included. This trip also included a visit to the Cao Dai cathedral. This is a religion which was formed in the 20's in Vietnam and is a mix of several religions including Buddism, Taoism with some influences from Christianity and others. The cathedral is a spectacular multicoloured building (see the photos). After the Cathedral we arrived at Cu Chi. This is a great attraction which kicked off with a talk about Cu Chi from an ex soldier who fought in the area. You get to walk/crawl along a short stretch of the tunnels which have been doubled in size to allow tourists through. This is definitely not for the claustrophobic as we found out when Ronan had to drag out a woman from the tunnels who started to panic and got stuck down there. En route you can pay to fire machine guns on the firing range. But I didnt get the point of this considering we were seeing all the damage guns do.

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Our stay in H.C.M. coincided with St. Patricks day. We went out for a few drinks in our local bar and bumped into some Danish people we haed met in Cambodia. So we decided to head out to Sheridans Irish bar for a few more drinks and had a great night there where we happened to meet some more people from America we knew from Kampot. After our stay in H.C.M we got an overnight bus and headed up the coast to Nha Trang.