Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - Vietnam

We left one large city for another, so it was very unlikely we'd be overly taken by Saigon (as the locals call it) but it was fine. The border crossing from Cambodia was surprisingly pleasant (prob the best land crossing we've done) but despite the fact that there are literally hundreds of guest houses and hotels nearly all of them were booked out. We eventually found some grand accommodation and set about finding information on transport through Vietnam (we eventually organised an open bus ticket to travel up the country for ourselves).

Next morning we had an early bus out to the Cu Chi tunnels. This is where some of the Vietnamese soldiers and civilians lived during the war (some babies were even born here!). It is amazing how they even managed to build these, never mind live in them (the photo is a minature version of their layout). Obviously the set up and tour in this place is very anti-American (the tour guides are very proud of the methods they used to trap, injure and kill the American soldiers). Orla had no interest in crawling through these teeny and dusty tunnels (super claustrophobic!), Ro gave it a shot but the returned because the dust was really getting to his chest. The trip was really worth doing and the tunnels really are an amazing piece of history.

We then visited the War Museum which again was extremely anti-American and showed some violent, vicious and heartbreaking pictures of Vietnamese civilians being injured and some joyous pictures of captured American soldiers. The effects of the Agent Orange material was also heartbreaking to see (especially as this is still affecting the generations after the war).

That evening Ro was particularly delighted to catch a live Liverpool FA cup match (scraping a victory against a bunch of amateurs, no sign of the glory days returning to Anfield!!) . Next morning we headed off on the worst bus ever (the 5 hour journey felt like 25 hours - unfortunately as its new year soon the trains are all booked up!).