Good Morning Vietnam!

(I couldn't resist!)

We have now arrived in the long awaited Vietnam, first stop Ho Chi Minh City!! I have been so so excited!! We have decided to immerse ourselves into the Vietnamese culture a bit more and are trying to learn Vietnamese (so far we know our numbers and a few basic greetings), so we tried saying a couple of things when out and about and jeeze it's difficult. However, day 1 and we said our numbers correctly when paying for our sim card 😂

We are also staying in a homestay which is so great!
The mother insists on cooking for us and wants us to join her family every evening! We had a couple of hours to kill before dinner so we ventured out to get a sim card and cash. Wow... the traffic... It's absolutely crazy but with an odd sense of order. For pedestrians if there's no traffic light you just go for it and it's like the parting of the red sea. You'll have bikes just weave in and out of your path, but don't stop or you might get a bike up your ass! We wondered round the streets and found dance, outside gym, aerobics and even ballroom dancing classes in the main park. Definitely going to have to try it out.

For dinner we headed back to the Home. She is just like an Indian mum and if your plate is slightly empty she fills it up, or if you take a minute to breathe instead of eating she thinks something is wrong. We are currently only booked for 3 nights here but think we will stay till Wed, although I might gain a couple of pounds if she carrys on feeding us like this haha If you are reading this and have friends in Vietnam please hook us up as we really want to meet locals.

Today is St Patrick's Day and the Chiang Mai family are together once again! During the day we walked around the central area near the park, around Independence Palace, went for a coffee and then went to the War Remnants Museum. The museum was so sad. It told the story of the US and Vietnam War Times with stories from the US veterans, showed news articles from the time and incredibly detailed and graphic pictures and videos of the events that occurred.

In particular the stories and images from the after affect of Agent Orange was shocking. Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover and crops so they could see the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops,who were hiding in the forests. In addition to its damaging environmental effects, the chemical has caused major health problems for many individuals who were exposed. Up to four million people in Vietnam were exposed to the chemical. The government of Vietnam says as many as 3 million people have suffered illnesses because of Agent Orange. They showed pictures of veterans, their children, their wives and 4th generation offspring that are still exposed to the chemical which damages genes resulting in deformities among the offspring. It was just inhumane to see.

After such a heavy afternoon we walked back through the park and went home to freshen up before dinner and Paddy's Night! Dinner was once again fantastic and I was soooo full!! Yu just keeps putting more food in my plate hehe

After dinner we went to join the family and brought Pow, staying in the homestay too, who had never experience British drinking culture. Being Irish the others were already quite a few drinks in when we joined and the Irish Pub was heaving! It was soooooooooo hot and sweaty inside with every singing and dancing! So much fun and so nice to see everyone again 😊 It was a very late night though and when I got back home I read, every Sunday morning at the Opera House they have live music, so obviously I had to go!Read more