Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city)

We arrived at Saigon and it was crazy! You'd be scared to cross the street with all the traffic! It was manic.

We went to a restaurant called Pho 2000 where Bill Clinton (a previous American president) went to have a meal. I had spring rolls with vermicelli! mmm..

Next day...

We did a little bit of homework before going out to a market. It was like the Russian market, but instead the Vietnamese were much harder bargainers. While we were walking, I saw a rat crawl under one of the stalls! 

After all the hard bargaining, we had to have a rest at a cafe bar!

We were going to go to a sky deck for a view but it costs $30 just to look out the window so instead we went to a restaurant on the streets. 

Afterwards, we walked past a chocolatier. I pulled Dad's arm and pointed to the shop.

He gave in and let us buy three hand made chocolates each. It took me 10 minutes to decide!

We finally arrived back to our hotel and devoured them!

They were some of the tastiest chocolates ever!

In the morning in Saigon people come out to exercise just like in Bangkok. Young people, older people and also schools doing their P.E. In the main square at 6:45 am there plenty of people playing badminton doing exercises and dancing.

Next day...

A soldier holding parts of a body they had just blown up

We went to a war remnants museum before leaving Saigon to fly to Bangkok. We saw real tanks, mini-airplanes and HUGE helicopters. We saw some cells in which the Viet cong had kept Vietnamese people. 

While we were in one of the cells, I started seeing stars and losing my hearing. I sat down and after a couple of minutes I could hear properly. Mum said I was quite close to fainting. It was so hot - c39 degrees with no breeze.

We walked upstairs and went into a room which had lots of pictures of children who had been affected by agent orange. Agent orange is a chemical used to kill plant leaves.

The Americans dropped it to see where people were hiding. People breathed it in and when their children were born, they had birth defects like downs syndrome, dwarfism, several faces and much more. It was a very one sided account unlike how Phnom Penh explained the Khmer Rouge.

We left our hotel with our guide to go to the airport. He wasn't very happy because he didn't want us to go! 

Overall I thought Vietnamese people were quite like the people in Laos but, I'd say the Vietnamese people were less smiley, more busy but still much more friendly than we are used to in the west.