Ho Chi Minh City - also known as Saigon, from my hotel window. I can’t imagine a musical called Miss Ho Chi Minh City being successful!

If you can negotiate the busy streets safely there’s plenty of sightseeing in HCM City. This is Notre Dame Cathedral.

Old and new mingle together in District One which is the centre of the city.

Two museums are dedicated to the “American” War as it’s known in Vietnam. If you ever go there don’t make the same mistake as me. Check museum opening times when planning your stay! Otherwise you may not get into the museums and have to content yourself with looking through the railings!

Some large black and white posters on the walls of the museum remind you of the devastation and the human cost of wars. Very poignant

75 kms northwest of Saigon are another reminder of that terrible war - the Cu Chi tunnels. This is a bomb crater in the area which has been described as “the most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated, and generally devastated area in the history of warfare”

…now you don’t! The Viet Cong guerillas ability to pop up from nowhere to attack the enemy and then disappear again apparently led one American officer to report that “the Viet Cong are everywhere but we don’t know where they are!”

Some of the tunnels have been enlarged to double the original size, and are dimly lit. to allow tourists through. The girl in front of me was half my size and she struggled as we went deeper into the system. One of the stupidest things I’ve ever done! The heat and lack of air down there has to be experienced to understand what it’s like and I would not recommend this part of the trip to anyone who isn’t physically fit, short and skinny!

….kitchen areas, and even workshops where unexploded American shells and bombs were adapted into mines and other explosive devices to be used by the VC…

The Ho Chi Minh sandal was made by the VC so it could be worn with the heel at the back or the front. When the ground was covered in ash after foliage had been destroyed footprints could be easily seen. Wearing the sandals back to front meant the enemy didn’t know which way you were going!

As at every tourist attraction the souvenir shop has some weird and wonderful things to part the tourist from their cash and yes that is a cobra in the snake wine! I’ll stick to the Pinot Grigio thanks.