Good Morning Vietnam!!

Well for the next few weeks we'll be rockin' you, as the man says, from the Delta to the DM-Zee...and a little farther North, actually, as these days Hanoi Hannah seems to welcome the presence of us capitalist pigs.

Having quit Cambodia, we hightailed it out of Phnom Penh opting once again for the tourist bus option (well you all would, they pick you up at your door and our bags are getting heavier!) to whisk us across the border into 'Nam. On the morning we left, though, Rach felt a little crook and we had only just crossed the Mekong river, west of the border, before she decided she couldn't face the journey and we had to leave the bus. So there we were, plucked from the cocoon of our air-con tourist coach watching it recede into the distance and stranded in the sweltering heat of some backwater Cambodian town. Time for a little panicky Khmer learning, I quickly flicked through the phrase book and pantomimed the need for a hotel so we could install ourselves and take stock. The town was actually pleasant, the local people friendly and amused by our presence and the views over the Mekong at sunset were superb; maybe this was the adventure we had so foolishly wished for!?
Rach felt better later in the afternoon and that evening as we sat in a local shack, peering into a dark pot and smiling encouragingly at whatever we would be eating, we met a Kiwi man who has been dragging his family around the Far East for the last 2 years. The 5 of them, kids no older than 13, were travelling on less than a shoestring and had run out of money. His outlook and achievements, including sailing a boat up to Borneo, left us aghast; it seems no matter where you go somebody else will make you feel like a home bird!

Next morning we managed to catch a lift on a passing coach and crossed the border in style, finally riding into Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's second and still called Saigon by most. Immediately we got a good feel for the city, beginning with a quick lesson in traffic rules on the famously busy streets where thousands of scooters, carrying everything from a family to a coffin, swarm in every direction. The main rule is that there are no rules. Rach seemed to grasp this immediately; perhaps she identifies with the anarchy of it, and has chosen this moment to overcome her fear of crossing the street. The key seems to be to shuffle inexorably forward, allowing the tide of vehicles to wash around you. Don't hesitate, look them all in the eye and don't stop. Oh, and these rules don't apply to cars or buses. We quickly evolved into a symbiotic road-crossing creature, each looking a different way and pulling the other on, only occasionally squealing or accusing the other of attempted murder.
In this way, we spent a day wandering the main sites of Saigon highlighted by the anti-yank War Remnants Museum. This collection gives a biased but interesting view of the Vietnam war, detailing the atrocities committed by the US, including use of Agent Orange and torture. The museum also showed an excellent display of photos by war correspondents many of whom were killed working close to the front line. Our problems with cameras continue. Having got a decent digital, it has decided on 3 occasions now to wipe its own memory every time we link it up to a computer. We know you don't care, but hear us out; you're the ones who want grinning snap shots! Well sort it out, and are off to the Delta tomorrow to explore. The bus is at 0600...you know what the 0 stands for!