An early wake up call! Day 2 of a scrummy Nikko breakfast. Tour bus pick up at 8am. We were joined by a Japanese/American couple and a family of 5 from Norway. A friendly group of people. Our tour guide spoke very good English.

A 1 and a half hour van ride to the Cu Chi tunnels. This is where the Viet Cong spent years living in these confined tunnels hiding under the noses of the Americans...fighting, cooking, sleeping, dying. In these tunnels, 100,000 lived, of which by the end of the war, 40,000 had died.

A fascinating 2 hour trip around the area. We were shown the traps they used, the devices they used to survive, their dining rooms, their make shift hospital, the tools used to dig the tunnels .
What made it very realistic though was when we were actually allowed to experience first hand what it would have been like living in these conditions by crawling a stretch of the tunnels ourselves! Note that the tunnels have been increased to 1m in height for the tourists. The space we crawled was claustrophobic enough..it is hard to imagine how they lived in this way. A real eye opener for the kids.

3pm. Back at the hotel to check out. A very late lunch at Temple Club (as recommended in our Lonely Planet of course). A restaurant tucked down an alleyway, one you would not visit unless you knew about it. Very nice lunch . The Vietnamese spring rolls particularly tasty!

6.50pm Now sat in departure lounge awaiting a flight to take us to Da Nang, then a short taxi ride to our next destination Hoi An... We should arrive by 9.30pm

Take away from Ho Chi Minh..a totally chaotic city in terms of traffic! I still can't believe how many motorbikes are on the roads..the very young ,the young, the old and the professionals in smart suits. People carrying bouquets of flowers and chair stacked up to 10 high! I saw a man today transporting 2 large sheets of circular glass! Families of 4 on one motorbike, even dogs on motorbikes! Cars, motorbikes and cyclists( they are mad!) will drive, cycle down the wrong way of a road if they have made a wrong turning! What amazes me is that we did not witness one single accident and that there is NO road rage at all...taxis simply politely hoot their horn to warn the motorbikes, cyclists and pedestrians that they are approaching.

A city, where we again had delicious food, a city where we learnt more about the recent history of Vietnam, a city which we felt safe walking around .. A city we enjoyed visiting.

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