Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Market Day (HCMC)

My final overnight bus was by far the best trip of my whole journey. I somehow got upgraded to a sleeper bus where you essentially have a bed, free water and all the leg room you (or at least I) require.

Ho Chi Minh City is again a return to mayhem. It's perhaps, somehow, busier even than Hanoi. There are 7 million motocycles in the town out of the 9 million that populate the city. The rules of the road are again ambiguous as cyclists fly about town at outrageous speeds and although most drivers are capable of swerving round you on a hair pin, accidents are common and spectacular - with about 30 major incidents every day.

I walked around at least some parts of town on my first day. HCMC is huge and to cover it all would take a fair few days, even by taxi. I headed to the Reunification Palace, the HCMC museum and the fine arts museum. I then visited the war museum, which is disturbing to say the least, as images of Vietnamese victims - disfigured by Agent Orange (dioxine) are clearly on display for the rest of the world to see.

The following day, I took a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, where the Viatnamese hid and fought from during the war. Once the tunnels stretched from HCMC to Cambodia, over 200km of narrow passages. You learn about the death traps that were set up, how the tunnels were built and you get to go down into some of the tunnels for a short part, crawling on your hands and knees in the dark. How they spent months living down there is quite extraordinary.

While my time in HCMC had been interesting, personal events back home meant that my mind wasn't really geared towards traveling. I thought of home, my friends and most of all, my family.

I left Vietnam the day after the Cu Chi Tunnels, for Cambodia. I had enjoyed my time here in Vietnam, despite it being perhaps the hardest place to travel thus far. The people here are a little more agressive, they don't take no for an answer and are constantly pushing you to buy, well basically anything. One guy in Hanoi spent 20 minutes trying to convince me to buy super glue. Super glue!!! I guess it's just not as relaxed as it's neighbouring countries and I found it often, quite tiring. On the the other hand I did find it the most rewarding country to journey through. I didn't come traveling just to go to places that were easy and for that reason I enjoyed immensely, all that Vietnam had to offer. For now though, the vietnam leg of my travels was over. The baton had been passed, and I was running with it - right into Cambodia.