Its been a long time since I blessed you with two blogs about Nha Trang and Dalat, receiving only three replies in return (one of which was self-penned), but I continue to soldier on! I am now in Siem Reap, Cambodia - the home to Angkor Wat, but before that, I have to tell you about Vietnamese war monuments, Mekong cruises and border crossings.

From Dalat, I went to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh - I will call it Saigon for simplicity's sake. Saigon is Vietnam's largest city, its financial hub, and houses Vietnam's largest expatriate population. I got there from the sleeper bus, had a wander around, settled on a hotel and planned my next few days.

The first day, we visited the War Remnants Museum - a museum housing various relics and photography from the Vietnamese-American war, and displaying an incredibly huge bias towards the Vietnamese (understandably of course). Some of the images were truly shocking, demonstrating the massacres at My Lai and other places, as well as the long term effects of American use of Agent Orange and Dioxin. Overall, the museum was very interesting, and at times shocking, to someone who had previously been ignorant about the causes and effects of the Vietnam war. There were also some poignant statements from leading American commentators at the time, talking about the injustices of this war, and they seemed equally applicable to the Iraq War. Thought provoking stuff!

In Saigon, I also visited the Cu Chi tunnels. These are a network of tunnels an hour from Saigon, that were home to a group of Vietnamese guerillas who succeeded in greatly disrupting the war effort. We were shown some of the booby traps used by the guerilla forces - the designs were extremely clever and effective. We were also offered the opportunity to fire genuine AK47s and M-16s - a chance graciously turned down by myself. Finally, we were given a 15 minute tour through the tunnel network. The tunnels were less that a metre high, less than half a metre wide, poorly lit, and very claustrophobic - at times, it was quite scary, and I was amazed at how the guerillas would spend hours down there at a time!

During the rest of the stay in Saigon, I visited several other monuments including the Reunification Palace, the state Post Office, the Notre Dame cathedral and a couple of temples. Some impressive architecture etc.

Saigon has earnt itself the status of Vietnam's city of vice. A common sight was seeing old, fat European/American men with young, attractive Vietnamese girls. A sad situation but something that shows the power of money in the Eastern world.

My personal highlight from Saigon was this small street bar that we found in the heart of backpacker district. This little bar is called a "Bia Hoi"(literally "draught beer") and they do a litre of beer for 11,000 dong (about 44 pence). Now this beer is unlabelled, comes out of a questionable looking tank, and tastes watered down, but for this price, who complains?! Anyway, this bar would attract Vietnamese locals, expats, and backpackers, and it provided a perfect vantage point to see one of the main streets in Saigon. During a 15 minute stretch at the bar, you'd see people trying to sell dried squid, quail eggs, peanuts, cigarettes, CDs, and even people offering massages on the street! The low price of the beer meant that we frequented this place a number of times, and on more than one occassion, a quiet drink led to us ordering "one more jug", followed by another "one more jug", and so on... This happened on my last night in Saigon, when, despite having to catch a bus to Phnom Penh at 7am the following morning, I was convinced to drink beer and whisky until 4am - not a wise idea but fun all the same!

In between all of this, I took 3 days out to do a cruise on the Mekong delta. This wasn't so much a cruise, as a series of small boat trips punctuated by visits to local islands to view local produce. The scenery was fantastic, the weather was good, and we were provided with plenty of fresh fruit. We also had a chance to visit a floating market and floating village - both of which provided me with ample snapshots! There's not really much more to say - other than that the mosquitoes had a field day with this tourist meat, and by the time I left, I felt like a pin cushion (very old fashioned simile there!). I'll let the pictures do the talking.

I'm in Cambodia at the moment, and will try and blog about Cambodia at another opportune moment, but for now, I'm having an amazing time here. I've been joined from some friends from back home (Apu, Rakhee, and Rakhee's sister and friend) - and its been nice and different travelling with some familiar faces!