So this is Ho Chi Minh City (formally Saigon) in the south of Vietnam. If you remember my spiel about the Vietnam War the other day, the war was ended when North Vietnam captured Saigon (the capital of South Vietnam) in April 1975, thus defeating the South (who were aided by the US) after almost 20 years of battle. Saigon was then renamed in honour of Ho Chi Minh - the former prime minister and president of North Vietnam and a key figure in the formation of the Viet Cong. Be that as it may, Ho Chi Minh City is still known as Saigon to everyone except city officials.

Saigon is Vietnam's largest city, and home to some seven million. And even more so than anywhere else we've been so far, the humble scooter unquestionably rules the road!

They fly in all directions, horns blaring, and it just somehow seems to work - we've yet to see a collision or even a near-miss for that matter.

Even the pavements aren't safe as the swarm of scooters spill onto them hehe. Add to that the swarm of pedestrians going about their lives, and this metropolis is easily Vietnam at its most dizzying.

It's exhausting ;) Be that as it may, and given the history of this place, it's a fascinating city as I'm sure we'll discover for ourselves over the next couple days, and the chaos is no bother to us.

We arrived about 2pm from Mui Ne, and rather than attempt to rush out and see the sights, we instead took care of some 'essential' business. I left my big camera with the Canon service centre after I managed to damage an internal component a week or so ago (the focusing screen for those familiar with DSLR cameras), Kristina took her Apple MacBook into an Apple service centre to have its shitty WiFi reception issues investigated, and then took her fangs into a dentist we passed by to have them professionally cleaned for dirt cheap hehe. I got myself a mop-chop, and Kristina got herself a pedicure - again for dirt cheap (gotta love it! :)

For din-dins we went to a rooftop bar around the corner from our hotel, where your food is brought out raw and BBQ'd at your table in front of you - good stuff! Check out the carnage below hehe. Apparently Vietnam unexpectedly won some football match tonight somewhere in the world, and this massive parade of scooters ensued with everyone cheering and waving flags. Vietnam must be a pretty shitty team if a random victory triggers this sort of response.

I don't have my DSLR as I mentioned above and my little camera's battery is flat after not being used in ages, so I had to resort to my iPhone tonight. Shitty picture quality aside, this should give you some idea of how folk live in the city. This shot shows about half a dozen apartments, across three separate buildings which are extremely tall and skinny (reminiscent of Amsterdam). Each apartment is barely a couple metres across and does go back a ways, but looks pretty damn cramped to say the least.

According to the song, war is good for "absolutely nothing", and today was all about the Vietnam War. Revisit my spiel here to quickly brush up on your history.

Our first stop, albeit brief, was the Reunification Palace, built in 1966 on the site of a previously destroyed palace to serve as South Vietnam's Presidential Palace during the Vietnam War.

On the morning of April 30, 1975, the first North Vietnamese tanks crashed through this gate when Saigon surrendered to the North in what has become known as the Fall of Saigon. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War after nearly 20 long years of bloodshed, and the start of a transition period leading to the formal reunification of Vietnam into a communist state.

Our main destination for the day was the War Remnants Museum, primarily containing exhibits relating to the American phase of the Vietnam War (the Yanks didn't stick around for all of it). Now to build on my previous history lesson...

Vietnam was colonised in stages by the French between 1858 and 1887. The French went on to colonise much of this area in what became known as French Indochina. The Viet Minh was a Vietnamese national independence coalition formed in 1941. Led by Ho Chi Minh, the Viet Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. During World War II, Japan occupied French Indochina (with minimal resistance from France) and so the Viet Minh turned their attentions to opposing Japan; for this they received support and funding from the United States, China, and the Soviet Union (part of the Allies of World War II). When Japan surrendered in August 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnamese independence, was then key in the subsequent formation of the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (a.k.a. North Vietnam, with Hanoi as its capital), and his Viet Minh crew opposed the re-occupation of Vietnam by France. In response to this, France established a (non-communist) puppet government in Saigon, reoccupied Hanoi, and the French Indochina War followed. This war lasted about eight years from 1946 to 1955, and resulted in a Viet Minh victory and the French getting the hell out of Indochina.

Now to digress somewhat. After World War II, the United States and the communist Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers (despite the success of their temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany). This set the stage for the Cold War. The US perceived communism as the largest post-war threat, and created a policy of "containment" which involved the use of military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to stall the spread of communism, enhance America's security and influence abroad, and prevent a "domino effect". The domino theory speculated that if one state in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. The domino theory was used by successive US administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world.

Now to tie this all together. The United States supported French efforts to retake the now-communist North Vietnam as part of their Containment policy to prevent the spread of communism. At the end of the French Indochina War 1956, Geneva Accords stipulated that Vietnam be temporarily separated into two zones: a northern zone to be governed by the communist Viet Minh, and a southern zone to be governed by the State of Vietnam (later the Republic of Vietnam, a.k.a. South Vietnam). The Geneva Accords also stipulated that a general election be held regarding total unification into one country. However, South Vietnam, with the backing of the US, refused to hold unifying elections claiming that Ho Chí Minh could not be trusted due to his affiliation with communism. This gave the Viet Minh the opportunity to march south to reunify the country by force. This plunged the country back into war - the Vietnam War. South Vietnam and the US against the North Vietnamese Viet Minh (and later the Viet Cong).

So while the North and the South saw this as a civil war over the reuniting of the Vietnam, the US saw it as the prevention of the spread of communism - their same reason for involving themselves in the earlier Korean War I believe. Anyway, I hope all that made sense (and is correct hehe) because it's taken me the best part of three hours to research it thoroughly.

Back to the War Remnants Museum. Out front is a jaw-dropping array of US military equipment of the period, including the fighter jet and Chinook above, a "Huey" helicopter, a couple tanks, a flame thrower, and various other means of destruction and carnage. Kristina's surname is Sledge by the way, and her former swim coach throughout college nicknamed her Sledge Hammer.

To give you some idea of just how much crap the US had at its disposal, by 1969 some 500 tanks were in service and some 2,000 Hueys.

The main building of the museum comprises a series of themed rooms across three floors. The exhibitions are rather propagandist in tone, but considering the museum was formally known as the Museum of American War Crimes it's hardly surprising.

Of course there were the usual displays of the various handheld weaponry employed, but there was also an extensive display on some of the atrocities and frankly inhumane acts carried out by US troops on the ground. The centre shot above is a GI parading around with part of a man's corpse after blowing him up with a grenade launcher; there's the rest of him on the ground there. The shot on the right is of two men being dragged to death behind a US tank. These are just two examples of dozens of such photos and stories - even women and children were gunned down in cold blood at point-blank range.

Former US Senator Bob Kerrey (see left).

This is one of the most famous and iconic photos from the War. More information here - well worth a read.

Another section of the museum shows the global movement and propaganda campaign against the US involvement in the war. Canada, Australia, Finland, Germany - you name it, and even US citizens themselves all called for the immediate withdrawal of US troops.

One of the aforementioned flame throwers in actions, and an example from a section of before and after shots of villages, towns, and cities after the US were done with them. Again I should point out that the museum had a very anti-American tone, and I'm sure some rather unsavoury acts were committed by both sides. Such is war.

This is an exhibition of the use of defoliants by the US, the most famous and devastating of which was codenamed Agent Orange. I talked about it exactly a week ago but to recap, Agent Orange was sprayed all over the show from the air in order to flush the Viet Cong out and deprive them of their jungle cover. Vietnam estimates 400,000 people being killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects from the use of Agent Orange alone after 75 million litres of the shit were sprayed across a ten-year period between 1962 and 1971. The photos above and below speak for themselves.

The war ended over 35 years ago, but children are still born today with grotesque defects attributed to the lingering effects of Agent Orange.

Not only do the effects of Agent Orange still linger, but so too do unexploded landmines - this kid unwittingly stepped on one as do many others to this day.

This is one of the tanks I mentioned above that stormed through the gates of the Reunification Palace in 1975, thus ending the war with a communist North Vietnamese victory.

The US pulled out of Vietnam in 1973, about two years before the Fall of Saigon. So, was it worth it? The war cost 60,000 US lives, 700 billion US dollars, and ended in defeat. However, big bad communism hasn't taken over the world, and isn't a threat to America. So, was it worth it? Sergeant William Brown doesn't think so, and offered his war medals above to the museum in 1990 as protest against the war. Above it says:

To the people of a united Vietnam
I was wrong
I am sorry

We left the museum somewhat dumbfounded, and were dumbfounded further by the rush-hour traffic hahaha! Video here.

And the fuel stations are no less chaotic!

I've noticed that Saigon has some very tall and modern skyscrapers dotted about the place, the likes of which we've only seen in Bangkok so far. Just thought I'd mention this non-war-related observation :)

This is looking down our little alley where our hotel is buried - always a hive of activity!

Kristina got her fruity fix for the morning and we set off for our final day in Saigon.

Our first stop was the Jade Emperor Pagoda, a Chinese temple built in 1909 a short way outside of the city centre.

We were welcomed by a wooden cage full of small birds all flapping over each other. I'm not sure if they were meant for the good luck ritual in which you release one of them or if they were lunch or what.

Not quite as good looking as Buddha.

The temple stunk of incense and smoke, with incense sticks burning everywhere and people praying with them.

Praying aside, it's also customary to leave offerings to the gods. Here we have a whole suckling pig, and this alcoholic offering some beer hahaha! I guess the gods get thirsty too.

From there we wandered back into the city, stopping by some random sights along the way. Here we have a filthy river...

The Ho Chi Minh City Hall...

And the 58-metre high Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica. This of course was established by the French colonists, and completed in 1880.

We also ventured into the Ben Thanh Market - a massive marketplace and we got the hell of there as quickly as we went in. We were immediately smothered with "You buy t-shirt, you buy bag, you buy this, you buy that, what you want?!?!"

Even in the park across the street we got hounded with offers of "cheap cheap" sunglasses hehe. Anyway, the skies opened up shortly thereafter with another beauty of a thunderstorm and haven't let up (even the power went out for a while) so that was pretty much it for the day, and for Ho Chi Minh City. Tomorrow morning we jump on another bus bound for Can Tho in the Mekong Delta - our final stop in Vietnam.

Who should I give them to?

Another quick (three-hour) bus ride today from Ho Chi Minh City down to Can Tho in the Mekong Delta area of southern Vietnam. I don't know what it is about bus trips here but they all seem to play really irritating music and/or irritating movies, really bloody loudly. This bus had that awesome sign regarding your legs, and a big TV up the front playing something that looked like the Eurovision Song Contest only it was full of Asians. Asianvision hehe.

We arrived in Can Tho to a warm greeting from the man himself.

As expected, there's piss all here of interest for us white devils. There are the usual street markets going on, this one seemingly specialising in fruit - if anyone can tell me what this prickly thing is I'll be impressed. Can Tho is home to about a million and used by tourists as a base for touring the popular floating markets and various other watery attractions in the Mekong Delta area (where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea). So we'll be checking all that out tomorrow, followed immediately thereafter by starting our commute into Cambodia towards the capital of Phnom Penh.

By the way, have you ever considered eating snake? To be honest I hadn't, until I saw it on the menu tonight hehe. It's pretty good - you should try it sometime :)

At 5am this morning my alarm went nuts, and by 5:30am we were on the water heading for this - the floating markets of the Mekong Delta. The Mekong River is the 10th-longest in the world at 4,900km, starting in China and dumping its load into the sea here at the Mekong Delta. We first met the Mekong exactly a month ago today when we took the two-day slow-boat from Thailand to Luang Prabang in Laos. As for these (food) markets, they're one of the more famous attractions in the area but they're pretty overrated. They kick off at the crack of dawn and are done by about noon. So why did we have a 5:30am start? To see the sunrise over the river, of which there was none due to the cloud hehe.

Fruit (especially pineapples), potatoes, and rice is the main thing on the menu.

The chick driving our boat bought a pineapple (we assumed for herself), and then later handed it to us like so to eat - groovy!

From the markets we went to a factory in the middle of the village. We're at a loss as to what exactly this stuff is that they were making on account of nobody speaking English (including our boat chick). But a certain type of rice was soaked in water for a bit and then poured in a hopper (shot on the left). What came out the other end was a white liquid, so I'm guessing the rice was crushed and squeezed. That liquid was then placed on hot pans (centre shot) in much the same way a crêpe is made. After about 60 seconds on the hot pan they're placed on these straw mats and left to cool. The pile on the right is the end result, but what the fuck is it?!

After that our guide continued to show off her talents, this time making an insect out of bamboo strips, a flower pot, bracelets, and earrings hehe, all of which Kristina is sporting.

This was our boat, and our multi-talented (though English wasn't one of them) guide.

We then ventured away from the main river and along some much quieter canals, weaving through countless villages and villagers going about their daily lives. Everyone seems to use the river to wash and bathe etc, despite the fact it's rather polluted and gross.

This region of the Delta is full of meandering networks of canals, and they're bloody lush and bloody nice!

At one point we got out the boat wandered across land for a ways, through people's backyards and little plots of land.

The only means for the locals to cross the canals is by walking across these so-called monkey bridges. These footbridges are usually built of uneven logs between 30cm and 80cm wide and have flimsy bamboo poles as railings. Safe as houses!

We stopped for lunch at a home stay in the middle of nowhere, after which the skies thundered and we got wet with what Forrest Gump would describe as "big ol' fat rain". And that was that for Can Tho, our brief stop in the Mekong Delta, and Vietnam. Tonight we're staying in the border town of Chau Doc, and at the crack of dawn tomorrow we jump on a boat bound for Cambodia!