The first things that struck Kei and I as we went from the airport to the hotel was the chaotic flood of motorcycles.

Situated at 167 Pham Ngu Lao Street in District 1, we stayed here for 3 nights. The first night was spent on the noisy 2^nd floor which is located much too close to the disco next door that operates until 4am - 7 days a week! From the 7^th floor, even the traffic noise was a distant hum.

The food we encountered in HCM City was outstanding – except for one memorable occasion when Kei felt the overwhelming urge to eat Western Food – Vietnamese Hamburger and Chips should be avoided!

The war museum was a moving testament to the shocking devastation wreaked on Vietnam and its people by decades of war. It briefly covered the wars to liberate the country from decades of brutal French colonialism. But the main focus was on the American War (as it is known in Vietnam) and the war crimes committed by the Americans. Murder, rape, torture, environmental devastation - the atrocities committed by the world’s Number One Terrorist State and their Weapons of Mass Destruction are all graphically illustrated. (NB: Similar crimes committed by the NVA and Viet Cong were not covered!). Anyone seeing this exhibition would surely consider that conducting wars on foreign soil and dropping bombs on ‘enemy’ populations is an evil murderous act. (Those who support the bombing of Iraqi children – take notice!!).

After the bus trip from Saigon to My Tho, we ventured onto a small boat that took us downstream to the town of Ben Tre.

Kei and Andrew went for a walk through the market along the river at Ben Tre. Kei tasted the not-so-exotic fruit of custard apples for the first time. Rambutans were in plentiful supply.

We visited several places in the delta as well as travelling through some narrow backwaters stretches. We visited a factory where workers were paid the comparatively high salary of US$35 a month to wrap caramel lollies, continuously and monotonously (the guide told us they work 10 hours a day with ‘no Saturday or Sunday’ – so much for the “Workers’ paradise”!). We visited a honey farm and listened to a recital of classical Vietnamese music – of course I enjoyed this more than Kei!

One things Kei and Andrew noticed was the large number of Japanese tourists in Vietnam. Venturing with us on the Mekong Delta trip were 2 young Japanese girls with very limited English skills. We made friends and helped them along through the trip. At the end, Andrew with his very limited Japanese skills was instructed by Kei to "say ‘Yoe Tabiyo’ to the Japanese ladies". This means "have a nice trip" and eventually became the coded term used for all Japanese!

Kei and Andrew visited the Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh. Cao Dai is one of the religions of the world that seeks to unify all the other religions of the world, taking the best each has to offer (perhaps similar to the Bahai religion?). Kei with her refined appreciation of foreign cultures thought that the participants in the midday ceremony looked like extras in a Hong Kong movie. When the chanting commenced, she said she thought the ones with the coloured clothing might turn into zombies and create havoc. But this didn’t happen.

We went to the Cu Chi tunnels which is located in an area west of Saigon that received some of the greatest intensity aerial bombing of any war in history. We walked through imitation tunnels to those used by the resistance fighters, the originals being way too small for the average Western tourist! There was a demonstration of the various torture devices and mantraps used by the Viet Cong guerillas that caused many a grimace.

Kei thought the man at reception was very handsome (despite the fact that he always greeted us with "Good morning Mr Robinson and Keiko"!). So Andrew used this as a pretext to take a photos of all the staff, including the LIVING GODDESS (voted by Kei and Andrew the most beautiful woman we saw in Vietnam – these photos do not do her justice). The other girl in the photos made our breakfast and was able to follow Kei’s instructions "No coriander!".