Good morning Vietnam (obviously)

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Next step along the way was the border crossing into Vietnam.

We took a coach from Phnom Pehn (pausing only to purchase more photocopied books from the street kids) and were pleasantly suprised at the uneventfulness of the journey. The border crossing was one of the easiest so far and as soon as we entered Vietnam the relative prosperity of the countries were apparent.

Ho Chi Minh City (AKA Saigon or HCMC) was cleaner and more modern than anything seen in Cambodia and had obvious French influences, that said buildings were of an odd constrution, all very thin but tall and the abundance of Communist flags and propaganda posters made it clear we were a long way from home.

On our first full day in HCMC we went into the countryside for a tour of the Cu Chi tunnel complexes where the Viet Cong had lain low in between bouts of terrorising US bases during the war. We went down into the tunnels but Jo soon had to get out and I freely admit that the dark, cramped passageways with dead ends was extreamly unnerving even without enemy soldiers trying to kill you.

The videos and documents on display at the complex were hilariously anti American with phrases such as, 'the barbarian american invaders' and 'our undefeatable communist protectors' but with the clips showing the B-52 bombing of villages you couldn't help but think they may have had a point.

Although it may be considered in bad taste, due to the number of people killed in the area, I couldn't resist the opportunity to fire an AK-47. Unlike some of our group, I thought posing for photos on a tank where they could tell you the names of the US soilders killed inside was going a bit far.

Back in HCMC we also visited the 'Reunification Palace', renamed as such after the communist North liberated the South from the yoke of French/American collonialism (according to the current point of view). The palace was the Southern goverments' seat of power in times gone by and is now mainly notable for the terrible 70's decoration in some of the rooms.

Our time in Vietnam is limited so we soon had to move on.

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