Have spent the last 3 days exploring the city and surrounding area. Now the bit you've all been waiting for - a lesson in history and culture! No sighs please. In 1883 France imposed a Treaty of Protectorate on Vietnam and French rule often proved cruel. During WWII, the only group that significantly resisted the Japanese occupation was the Communist dominated Viet Minh. When WWII ended, their leader, declared Vietnam Independent. French efforts to reassert control soon led to full scale war, resulting in The Geneva Accords in 1954 which temporarily divided Vietnam at the Ben Hai River. When Ngo Dinh Diem, an anti-Communist, Catholic leader of the South, refused to hold an election scheduled for 1956, this line became the official border. The National Liberation Front (NLF), a Communist guerilla group better known as the Viet Cong was founded to fight Diem. He was a brutal leader and in 1963 was assassinated by his own troops and the situation for the Southern regime became desperate. In 1965 the US committed it's first combat troops in support of the south and in 1968, the VC launched a deadly surprise attack (the Tet Offensive), marking a turning point in the war. The Paris Agreements signed in 1973, provided for a cease fire, the total withdrawal of US forces and the release of American prisoners of war. Saigon surrendered on 30th April 1975. Vietnam was reunified by the Communists and hundreds of thousands of southerners fled Vietnam. With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Vietnam and Western nations re-established diplomatic relations, with the US doing so in 1995. So there we have it, and also my first foray into a communist country. HCMC is exceedingly westernised, much to my surprise, and is also much cheaper than it's neighbour Cambodia. We spent yesterday wandering around the city and visited The Reunification Palace, which was built in 1966 to serve as the Presidential Palace. It was towards this building that the first Communist tanks in Saigon rushed on 30 April 1975, the day Saigon surrendered. The building has been left as it was on that day, and boy does it show!!!! The interior looks like it is stuck in a 1960s/70s time warp, with bad decoration and hideous furniture, even including a huge fake barrell bar in one of the rooms. Having left here we came upon the strangest sight on the street - a woman bleeding and gutting a snake. Not something you see very often in England. First she grabbed it behind the head and cut it's throat, draining all the blood into a glass and then slit it from top to bottom and pulled it's innards out. Very pleasant. After all this the snake was till moving, though how I don't know. The sacs of venom were then removed and placed in a separate jar - a nice little aside there for you after all that history. Onwards to lunch at a place called Quan An Ngon, which served a fantastic rice pudding, made with black rice and coconut milk - divine (and not a snake innard in sight!). We then strolled through the central market and some shopping areas and I couldn't resist some fabulous shoes (photo to come!) and all for the bargain price of about 7 quid. It's now getting late and I fancy a beer, so yesterdays and todays exploits will have to wait until next time. Sherry xx