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Arrived on Saturday and quickly headed out to a French bar for the rugby, and was not disappointed, as I'm sure you all know by now!

AK47

Explored this city pretty thoroughly, but it's by far the busiest and ugliest in Vietnam, sort of a mini Bangkok, with it's own backpackers district with loads of hawkers. Went to the Presidential Palace and War Remnants museum on Monday. The Palace was the former government building before the North invaded, and has been left pretty much as it was that day, with some very funky 70's interiors! It also had a bomb proof basement with all sorts of stuff down there to keep the place going under attack. In the event, the palace wasn't bombed and a couple of soldiers simply walked in and claimed it for North Vietnam.

Cu Chi Tunnels

The War Remnants museum was a pretty horrific display of war crimes carried out by the Americans, from the Mai Lai massacre to the use of Agent Orange to remove foliage, causing the birth of a large number of deformed babies.

On Monday, I went on a visit to the Cu Chi tunnels, dug by the

North Vietnamese during the Vietnam war to hold out, hide and attack the Americans/South Vietnamese from. We were allowed to walk through an enlarged 90m section of these tunnels, which were still extremely cramped, dirty and hot and gave an idea of the environment the people who lived down here had to endure, whilst being bombed. We also saw the various traps used by the North, using very basic materials such as bamboo- with very nasty results! After, there was a shooting range on site where you could fire a gun of your choice for $1 a bullet. Being the boy that I am, I couldn't resist and chose the AK47, firing 10 rounds into the sand!

Reunification Palace

That evening I headed to a place called 'Apocalypse Now' bar with a few from the tour, with a very mixed crowd and not too many foreigners that evening. It was good to mix with a few Vietnamese people. They also played 'the end' by the doors at the end of the night (if you've seen the film, you'll know)! Not sure if that was completely cheesy or quite cool!

Off to the Mekong Delta tomorrow on a boat tour before hopping on a speedboat up the Mekong to Phnom Penh in time for the weekend.

Saigon1

Tunnel entrance