Ho Chi Minh City

---

Arrived HCMC from Danang early evening. Spent about 40 min coming into central city area from Airport. Traffic is unbelievable - take the population of NZ, double it, and put them all on motorbikes, plus cars and buses.

Settle into hotel and then contacted John's cousin, Rick, who lives here and works in advertising. Arranged to meet him at the Irish bar, about 10 min walk away. Good night catching up with Rick and his mate James from the States. Together they have put together the Saigon Squared book of photographs. We have bought a copy so it will not doubt sit on the coffee table when we get back.

Next day we went to the War Remnants Museum - very graphic images of the atrocities the US inflicted on the Vietnamese. It showed how utterly pointless this war was. The US were never going to win it seeing how adept the Vietnamese were at guerrilla warfare. Very sad and very moving exhibition.

Risked our lives crossing streets in HCMC - idea is to just keep walking and not make any eye contact with motorcyclists or cars coming your way - rule is they avoid you. Think is here in Vietnam when it comes to the road rules, is that there are no rules. James explained it as being like a shoal of fish - everybody just merges.

Caught up again with Rick and his wife Catherine for lunch. They then took us back to their house. They are in District 10 which is about 15 min away from the central area. They have a quiet little oasis off the beaten track, behind a wall and gate. You could have been miles from a big city - so quiet, with lots of lovely trees and garden.

Visited the central market and bought a few things - some will be good for fancy dress. But I think a lot of it probably can be found in our $2 shops.

Took tour out to the Cu Chi tunnels. John managed to squeeze into one. We both walked 40 m through one of the tunnels. But they have been made bigger to cope with tourists - still very claustrophobic.

On final day went up the Bitexco building to get a good view over the entire city - except that its a bit hazy so can't see too far. The city goes for miles.

Bed at the hotel was so hard that we had to ask if they could provide us with something a bit softer. They obliged by putting an extra foam mattress on top - which was ok, but we are really looking forward to a softer bed.

---