Saigon Mini Hotel Ho Chi Minh City

The museum has been renamed. It was previously named 'The Amreican and Chinese War Crimes Museum'. I'm sure you can see where this is leading. Although there was quite a bit of bias (well quite a lot actually), it was reported what atrocities the American soldiers had done to the local people. It also showed the after effects, in terms of mutations of offspring, that the Agent Orange had. I'm sure that there were also some terrible acts performed on captured American soldiers by the Viet Cong...

We got picked up at 8am (believe me, it nearly killed us) and first got taken by Tommy, our guide, and 'Jimmy', our driver to a factory fundraising for victims of Agent Orange making pictures in eggshell and mother of pearl (we honestly thought that around the corner there would a be a room dedicated to finger-painting). We expected that we would be shown people with horrible deformities and be made to feel really guilty about not buying anything, but thankfully, not. NB 'Jimmy' is not his re...

This *ne is a little easi** than the last. Same rules apply, first *ne in with an answ** gets the sweetass light**. I h*pe y*u like this.

S* t* pick up wh**e we left *ff...

I nailed the challenge at *utback Jacks in all *f 26 minutes, and I g*t a t-shirt t* pr*ve it. It's all ab*ut strategy, and being able t* st*mach 2 kg *f heavy f**ds in a sh*rt p**i*d *f time. Last few days in Darwin w**e gl*ri*us, many be**s and reminisces, wedding was great. Went t* the free Darwin wat**sli...

Tong! (no prize for this one)

Tong works for Saigon Mini hotel as a security guard who cleans rooms. This seems strange but one must always be open to new things in new countries. I know a few security guards back home who would be better off as maids anyways. So I wake up early for my free breakfast which is freshly squeezed orange juice with two teaspoons of sugar in the bottom (fairy nuff) a pretty good coffee, an omelete that was quite tasty and two slices of white toast with enoug...

Right, no time to **** about here, I'm behind, a little drunk and tired. I took today off. Was supposed to go to the American/Australian embassy (exciting!) and then to a water park for slides on my own. Which is fine. Really. I'm not upset about having no friends whatsoever. Anyways, Chau's bike broke down, so I decided to sit at home and drink beer, play video games, write, surf the net, do crosswords and read red dwarf. It has been glorious. But I must begin at the usual place.

Once...

I'm only running about five days behind, which is really quite impressively punctual of me. Where were we? Mekong Delta.

The Mekong Delta was a disappointment. I punched no glass, I dethroned no God complex dictators, and I sure as **** didn't get back to basics. Let me explain.
I had expected on the outset of this journey that I would spend three days two nights on a boat, floating up the river with a bunch of hardened sailor type ruffians. At first they would mock me in their own...

Yes, it's a bit humid....and warm...but mostly humid. You could go through 3 sets of clothes a day, easily. Other than that, HCMC (or Saigon) is very Asian. Loud, crowded, lots and lots and lots of motorcycles. No one walks, everyones on a cycle. No one but foreigners take taxis or walk. Crazy gai lao....wait...that's Thai...watever. We hit the Bin Than Market this morning and enjoyed the sights and smells of outdoor groceries. Lots of great looking fish and a minimum of meat. Lots of ladies ...

Our day started with a frightening thrill ride through traffic. We decided to take a bike-rickshaw (or bike-shaw) to the Bin Tranh market this morning. We negotiated a deal of 10,000 VND (less than $1) for each of us and hopped in the seat set in front of the bike. It was monday morning during rush hour and the traffic was horrendous!!! It was an "E" Ticket taking a left onto a main street as the cross traffic doesn't necessarily stop and the turning traffic has to get aggressive and hope the...

Gotta be brief: Back from the Mekong River Delta area for a 2 day trip. Saw a floating market that was really a locals market done from boats with NOT A THING that a tourist would consider buying as a souvenier! Shocking. We cruised some canals and areas between islands and felt a little like being on the Disneyland Jungle Cruise...but in a good way...a narrow canal surrounded by jungle with interesting stuff to look at (but don't worry, no rhinos get shot in the end and no guide doing corny ...