Hello you very lovely people, I am warning you now, this is likely to be a very, very long blog, I had written a rambling tale last night after our arrival in Hoh Chi Minh and was bringing my chat to an epic end when I stuck out my foot (bare because we are in a very traditional Vietnamese hotel where you have to remove your shoes before entering) and I poked the off button to the computer with my toe, therefore losing everything I had written. Disheartened I could not face beginning again so I am doubling up today. We have seen and done much since arriving here so beware this is likely to be lengthy!

Our last night in Hoi An began with us walking down to the river to meet Andrew and Rhiannon, somewhat glowing from our time on the beach (despite copious amounts of sun cream!). We started off with drinks at the colonial type cargo club, eyeing up the ice-cream menu and vowing to return after dinner to sample their wares! We had an amazing tea overlooking the glowing river (the crabmeat and asparagus soup was to die for - you are so right Mum this is becoming an extravagant food diary!) After tea we walked across to lantern alley where Andrew bargained hard and came away with a bag bulging with jewelled coloured lanterns of every shape, colour and size. We mourned our tiny bags and many stops to come and satisfied ourselves with taking picture after picture of the glowing colours and their luminescent glow into the heavy darkness. We then forged on as promised hooked on the idea of ice cream from the cargo club, there we chose a coconut and chocolate meringue served with deep, rich chocolate ice-cream, a salty caramel heaven and a somewhat non-descript vanilla which could not compete with those it was sharing it's bowl with! We then wound our way back to the hotel through deserted streets and unfamiliar calm. It was only 10.30pm at night but Hoi An shut early and the only sign of life we recognised as we rambled home was the picky Americans still in the tailors, still getting fitted!

The next morning dawned bright and sunny and we breakfasted on the terrace before facing the mammoth task of packing and squeezing our spoils from Hoi An into our crowded bags. We did this to the strains of traditional Vietnamese music which spews from the rubbish trucks which collect rubbish every morning (In Hanoi it was a hand cart which came round the streets which called people to come dump their trash by the chimes of a handbell!). Once packed we bade a fond farewell to our hotel, anyone who comes to Hoi An (and I think everyone should!) should stay with them, they were the most friendly and kind people and the laundry may be the cleanest my clothes have ever been, even cleaner than on purchase. On leaving they pressed upon me, two more beautiful embroidered purses as gifts and waved goodbye to us at the kerb as we pulled away, heading slightly reluctantly to Hoh chi Minh. Once again at the airport we met Andrew and Rhiannon who were travelling to Hoh Chi Minh the same time as us. We made plans to go to the Cu Chi tunnels together and waved each other off to our respective hotels on arrival in Hoh Chi Minh.

Now we were not overly looking forward to this move, everyone has told us that Hoh chi is hot, busy and not very pretty. One American family told us that they had journeyed down only one side of the road as they felt unable to venture across any of the roads! Indeed the traffic was much heavier than Hoi An as expected and on arrival and we exchanged wry glances at the familiar way of managing crossroads (i.e. go for it and beep like a mad thing!) though as we wound our way down the chaotic streets we noticed that there were stop lights and about 50% of driver attempted to stop at them so we were hopeful for success at navigating the city.

We arrived at our hotel situated down a winding little ally off a bustling street. The hotel is traditionally Vietnamese in that shoes are removed at the door through politeness. It is not fancy pants, but the guy running it is the friendliest guy we have ever met and every time we return from the city, we are greeted with freshly squeezed mango juice and a cheery smile. Our room is on the 3rd floor and the guy running it jumped up the stairs in such a spritely manner I began to wonder whether he was any relation to Polonious!

No sooner had we had dumped our bags we returned to explorer mode and began pounding the pavements to explore the big smoke. Our first experience of crossing the roads was instantaneous and we think that Hanoi stood us in good stead, and think we have mastered the art of weaving between bikes and most importantly stepping off the kerb with confidence, while keeping the bat senses on high alert at every direction. In fact, some do obey the lights and it's about picking your spot and your timing. The best thing is that when they are stopped at lights and they deem the queue to big...no problem they just mount the kerb and enter walker's territory! In and around the main sights there are also men and women in green uniforms (they are tourist helpers!) who pop up and guide you across roads stopping traffic for you.

Now we think that Hoh Chi Minh has been misold, undoubtedly it doesn't have the relaxed pace of Hoi An and it's westernisation (3 KFC's, 6 malls and counting!) means it lacks the charm of Hanoi (although the clear street signs mean we haven't got lost once!) But despite this it is pretty and there are many little oasis of calm within the busy city. A park here, some gardens there which if you venture into you see groups of men sitting playing complicated games of Chinese type chequers and card games. We saw some men practicing a martial art and lots of people exercising too. It is more peaceful in the gardens; however, you never really escape the rumbling throbbing of the traffic in the distance accompanied by the ever-present chorus of beep, beeps. We managed to take in most of the sights, the statues, the Notre dame cathedral (which city are we in?!) and pinpointed the sights we wanted to visit the next day as they were closed when we were out and about yesterday.

Now we only have 2 full days in Hoh Chi Minh, we knew we definitely wanted to go on a 1/2-day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels and we played with the idea of a day trip to the Mekong Delta. However this would have left us with no time to see Hoh Chi Minh, so we shelved the Mekong Delta trip (it's a full day trip from 7am-7.30pm and lots of time on a bus!) and decided that this would give us incentive to return. We had tea in a decidedly non-descript restaurant which had been recommended by the guidebook (that's the last time we trust that!) and we had a few beers before heading out of the so hot, so muggy heat to worship to the god of air conditioning on our room! We went to sleep with heads full of plans and things to be seen the next day!

Instead of a musical interlude between episodes I am going to insert episode 3 (I think) of things we have seen on a bike! We went to Ho Chi Minh and we saw....A bike with another bike strapped to the back of it, a bike with about 50 (no word of a lie) inflated inflatable toys in every which colour protruding from every orifice that the bike possibly had!, A dead pig (a whole one!) and entire restaurant (honestly it had a rack of kebabs hanging from it and a chair strapped to the back!) and to top it off a shrine to the gods! Ok back to the story...

The next morning (today!) we headed out early, the museums here open early and have two sessions, morning and afternoon so we headed straight to the Reunification Palace. I read why it was built (and rebuilt several times!) but to be frank after today I am more confused than ever with the history of this place. Inside it was decked out in hardcore 70's style, complete with movie theatre and gambling room which were very, very James Bond. Deep in the bowels of the basement were the control rooms where the war was planned and the maps still hanging on the walls. It was a pleasant walk around the magnificent rooms but there were few signs in English, so we think we misunderstood what was actually going on! After this we headed out on a long, hot walk to track down the Jade Temple, which is a beautiful traditional temple up town, After struggling to find it and wondering if they had just levelled it we finally followed our noses to the heady aroma of incense which marked the spot, much like a smoke signal. We were a little confused when people outside were trying to sell us goldfish in bags like the fair used to when we were kids, but soon realised when we got inside that it was to add to the pool outside the temple as some kind of offering. We are mighty glad we didn't partake though as the walls of the pool were high and the water level on the low side. I imagine tipping the poor little blighters in from that height would be non to pleasant for them! We walked through the temples, incense misting the sight of the rich gold and coloured statues with colourful flowers and fruits as offerings. The walls were dark and carved ornately and we would have taken pictures but there were many people praying so we felt that would not be overly respectful to shout 'say cheese!' and snap away.

After this we headed out to the botanical gardens which to our surprise contained a zoo! It had a wide variety of animals including tigers and heffalumps, but although they looked fairly healthy, the cages were small, and the standard was far below that of Singapore. I did try having a little chat with the heffalump to continue my Mahmut training, but it just looked at me with sad eyes cos its pool was empty.

We headed out looking for fortification in the intense heat. Now it is too, too hot to eat here so we have been relying on a couple of ice blends (a coffee bean version of the Frappuccino) to get us through the day, these give us some brief relief from the heat and replenish some of the muchos liquid we are losing by sweating constantly!

Following an icy treat, we headed to the War Remnants museum, chuckling as we crossed the road loving the guy who managed it by swatting at the oncoming bikes with his newspaper. At particularly difficult crossings we crossed in the shadow of the school children who skipped across and another time behind the office workers heading out for lunch. The best moment was when the guy selling water decided he would accompany us across and merely shoved his basket of wares into the fender grills of oncoming cars while ushering us across safely (obviously we bought water off him then!)

Now, the war remnants museum...ever since arriving in Vietnam I have been reading and rereading the guidebooks to try and get some understanding of the war and what happened. What I have found is two opposing tales (the guide books say America came to the south on Vietnams request to help people manage the atrocities of the dictator - the museum say they invaded to protect their own wealth and growth) I realised walking round the museum that trying to get to the bottom of the whole 'he said, she said' was impossible as each side obviously only presents its own biased view. The exhibits showed the overwhelming horror of the effects of the war, the use of chemical warfare (agent orange) and the too young soldiers following orders from either side. Highly emotive and graphic pictures illustrate the true meaning of the war in the pictures of bodies of women and child strewn along the roadside and harrowing captions by the photojournalists who described stopping soldiers so they could get their shots and then turning their back to the sound of gunshots, knowing that the subject of their pictures were now dead. There is also picture after picture of the malformations that they believe agent orange caused and the birth defects which still occur. To be sure the city still seems to bear the scars of these agents and there are many people around the city with deformed limbs and many war veteran amputees move around the street on wagons which they move painstakingly pumping a handle which propels them forward. I must admit viewing many of the pictures of the impact on the towns and village people with tear-filled eyes and I imagine I'll be seeing them for a wee while when I shut my eyes tonight. Still despite the harrowing nature of the subject matter, it was worth the journey if only to root the true impact of the war back where it belongs, with its victims (both Vietnamese and American - many of the American soldiers were young and uneducated and were chosen for this very reason and there are many pictures of their suffering and photos of young men with sad, traumatised eyes) rather than with who's to blame and who was right and who was wrong.

So, with sober thoughts we meandered home, deep in discussion of what we had seen. We wended through the park to replace pictures of horror and suffering with sights of people playing and laughing. Which brings me to now, hot and sticky in the hotel lobby writing this (we noticed just how hot it was here today, we walked through a pool of water leaving watery footprints behinds us - we watched them evaporate in about 3 seconds in the oven like heat!)

So now I will leave you to have cool down (well deserved) and stretch out my feet - I have kept them crunched in a tight ball to prevent a repetition of last night!) Tomorrow we visit the Cu Chi tunnels so I will update in the evening all about it!

Muchos hugs to you all

Love Kat & Lee (feeling somewhat humbled) (Ps too too hot to spell check- so I apologise if some of this is in double Dutch -Spell check done - if there are any more, I can only blame incompetence!)