Ho Chi Minh City - Saigon

Well we made the right decision booking a bus to Saigon the day after arriving in Mui Ne. Mui Ne is a small fishing village but has 10km of coastal beaches so it is rapidly turning into a holiday resort.

Our accomodation was right on the beach and we had a lovely walk along it late on Thursday 2nd August but on Friday 3rd it was chucking it down. Our bus was due to pick us up at 1.30pm but eventually arrived around 2.15pm and after a few more pick ups we were on our way to Saigon.

As usual I stuck my Nano on for the bus ride and was rewarded with a number of excellent tunes. One of the great things about music (and there are many) is that certain songs/bands remind you of certain people, moments or times.

'As I Watch You In Disbelief' by The Charlatans came on as I looked out of the window at the coastline. This song always reminds me of T In The Park a few years ago when me, Ross and Carla were watching The Charlatans. They laucnhed into this song and Ross started bouncing around declaring 'I f**king love this song' much to the amusement of Carla and I!

Other top tunes on the drive to Saigon (now named Ho Chi Minh City after the reunification of Vietnam in 1976, but still referred to as Saigon) included 'Being Around' by The Lemonheads, 'In My Life' by The Beatles and 'She's A Rainbow' by The Rolling Stones. I also made Lynn listen to The Jackson Sisters marvellous 'I Believe In Miracles' on her Nano after it came on to mine. Tuuuuuuuune!

We arrived in Saigon around 6.30pm and were dropped off in the backpacker district across from a bar called Guns'n'Roses that we immediately vowed to go to for a drink after finding a hotel. The first one we tried looked a little plush but we thought we would chance our luck. Unfortunately the cheapest room was $55. Not to worry as we saw another nice hotel round the corner and treated ourselves to the top price room at $20 a night. Well, we haven't had a nice hotel for a week or so, so why not?

We headed round to the Guns'n'Roses bar and we were greeted with 'Sweet Child O' Mine' blasting out of the speakers followed by 'November Rain'. After a couple of beers and a few games of pool we head out to find some food. We discover a superb bar just down from our hotel called Eden that is playing Oasis 'Don't Go Away' so we head in. We treat ourselves to our fist western food in ages. I have the special pizza and Lynn has a Chicken Burger. The DJ plays some top music and after I buy him a Red Bull he plays the Roses 'Adored', 'She Bangs The Drums' and 'Fools Gold' as well as 'True Faith' by New Order.

Our table is by the door and as New Order come on the heavens open and there is a torrential rain storm. The wildest we have seen. People scurry into shops and bars and the rain is almost horizontal. I wish we had taken our camera out with us!

After quite a few beers and a bit of singing from the two of us we head back to our hotel for a good nights sleep.

August 4th - Saturday
It's raining today, but only lightly, so we put on our caguls and head to the market where I intend to buy a new t-shirt and trousers. I get a Diesel t-shirt, a funky pair of white trainers and a Saigon Beer t-shirt for 500,000 dom. We have a bite to eat at one of the stalls and chat to a lovely Canadian couple who now live in Ko Samui. They have also travelled in Brazil and we swap tips on a few things and exchange e-mail addresses.

After that we head back to our hotel to dump my ourchases and then head out to visit a couple of museums. Our first visit is to the Reunification Palace. The highlight is a photo gallery and video at the end with some amazing footage from the war - more of which later.

We then head to the War Museum and I have to say it took my breath away. The museum is mainly a collection of photos documenting the war, as well as replicas of tanks and planes, parts of bombs and clothing etc from the war.

The photos are absolutely stunning and every politician in the world should be made to visit this museum. They graphically document the horror, devastation and terror caused by war. We had already learned quite a bit about the war from our museum visits in Hanoi and from our Motorcycle guides who showed us areas of the country affected by the Americans use of Agent Orange - a toxic chemcial that they liberally sprayed all over Vietnam - 72 million litres of the stuff - wiping out crops, destroying rainforests and causing absolutely shocking effects to people.

The effects of Agent Orange are still being felt to this day in Vietnam - kids are being born with no legs or arms, with horrific abnormalities to their faces and bodies. It's almost too disgusting to look at but we do. Some of the photos of the war crimes committed by the Americans sicken me. The photos are truly special though and many were taken by award winning photo-journalists from Time magazine. Do a google search for Agent Orange to find out about the effects. Even adults that look normal have been affected and their kids are born with horrific abnormalities.

We're just checking our e-mails, updating the blog and uploading some photos on to the flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/murrayandlynn

Tonight we are going to go clubbing! I'll update the blog again soon.