Vietnam - the first days

Our first full day in Ho Chi Minh City and we spent it having a look around.

Here is a picture of Mike and I at the Jade Pagoda. As you can see there is no snow around! It was warm and our clothes had not yet arrived from the airport so Mike was still in his fleece shirt.

The boys (Tristan, Kyle and Sean) travelled on their own route, not hampered by the old folks.

A local Vietnamese entrepeneur had us help him sell some coconut milk and water to the tourists! It was quite hard on the shoulders!

After lunch we checked out the War Remnants Museum. There was no problem telling who won the war! But interesting none the less. Above is one of the US Army helicopters.

A couple of hours in the heat and we needed to head back to the hotel to cool down.

And our luggage took 2 days to arrive, so we were all pretty ripe the morning it arrived!!

After 3 days we headed off to the beach, the boys by train to Nha Trang, and Mike and I to Mui Nee.

Good Morning Vietnam!

We have made it to Ho Chi Minh City and our luggage finally arrived today! A shower and clean clothes after a day of doing the tourist bit - The Jade Pagoda and War Remnants Museum (very one sided against the U.S. but still interesting and disturbing.

My first impressions of the city: it's not a beautiful place but it is endlessly fascinating. You get new high rise buildings next to falling down shacks, and there is new construction on every block. The main method of transportation is the motorbike and very few rules of the road are followed, but they do stop at stop lights unless they are turning to the right.