Very early morning start, with an alarm call at 5.30am in readiness for our flight at 8am down to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon.

Before leaving Hoi An, we managed to grab a final photo in front of the paddy fields in front of the hotel. Despite being just 6am, it was already feeling hot (32c) so we were pleased to be getting jumping in to an air-conditioned coach.

Saigon as the locals still call it, is Vietnam’s capital of commerce and culture. After landing we did a sightseeing tour of the city, passing the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Opera House.

Our first stop was the War Remnants Museum to discover some of the sobering stories of the 20yr long Vietnam/American War.

Vietnam became an experimental place for inventions from US military engineers. Their purpose was to use human to test their inventions for later use in other battle fields.

Sobering statistics from the Vietnam conflict – loss of life & bombing numbers.

The pictures and stories of the events of the Vietnam war paint a very sad picture of humankind. Not sure how I’d feel to view this as an America – it highlights the cruelty they imposed with no just cause.

After departing the museum, there was a feeling we should see another side to our Saigon experience, with a walk down book alley, one of the few places where motorcycles cycles are banned.

After our visit to book alley, we walked past Notre Dame Cathedral Saigon, which sadly is under repair and covered in scaffolding.

Opposite is the main city post office, built by a French architect in the 1880’s who was also connected with the construction of the Eiffel Tower.

After a busy morning, we had developed a hunger so lunch was our next priority.

Lunchtime affair, Pho and Saigon lager, a winning combination.

With the afternoon to ourselves we decided to visit the Reunification Palace, the home for the pre-1975 Vietnamese government prior to the introduction of Communism.

We then took a tour of the palace with the help of an audio talking us through the history of the building and the events leading up to 1975.

On tour duty, headphones readied and stepping into the 15k and above.

After the culture trip, we took it down a notch and made for an upmarket coffee shop for a caffeine kick before continuing on to ‘walking street’ Nguyen Hue before moving on to Bui Vien walking street where the bars and restaurants can be found.

After a brief bit of retail gazing in one of the covered markets, we ended the night with a visit to a street food market near our hotel. Had a fun time and ate some great Indian curry along with a couple of Saigon beers.

Our last stop, the street food market. Good way to finish a busy and thought provoking day. Looking forward to our visit to the Mekong Delta tomorrow and another day on the waters