Upon arriving in HCMC we checked into our hostel, realsied that the tour operator was closed on a Sunday so would have to get up early the next day to book the tour we wanted to do in a few days and then headed out for food around the capital of Vietnam. We headed for Zen (a vegetarian restaurant listed in the LP). It was a good price and the food was very tasty, the red rice particularity. After a brief walk around the city we headed back to bed ready for an early start and hopefully the tour operator will be open tomorrow!

We had breakfast included with our accommodation at the Luan Vu Hotel in the form of eggs, bread, jam and coffee or tea, it did the trick to set us up for some sightseeing in the city. First thing we went over to Sinhbalo tours to book our cycling trip in the Mekong for the last few days of our stay in Vietnam and then we were free to explore. First on our list was The Independence Palace, also named The Reunification Palace, it’s an impressive building that has won architectural awards as well as playing part to historic moments in the Vietnamese War. The building itself has been left as it was when the Americans evacuated and the Viet Cong claimed Saigon and renamed it Ho Chi Minh City. The rooms are set up to be as they were when they were used in the 1970′s so you find an old snooker table, retro furniture, an American replica helicopter sits on the roof and we were able to imagine what it was like in full use back in the day. Some of the rooms were used for entertaining, others for meetings and conferences, the basement though is a great place to explore. We came across the rooms which were used by the South for communications during the war, old telephones, maps, secretarial like rooms and secret meeting rooms for the President of South Vietnam. We could have spent the whole day there photographing as the light was just beautiful inside. We were turfed out though at around midday as most attractions close during the lunch hour.

Following on from here we wandered the streets several times attempting to find The War Remnants museum, it was actually really close to the Independence Palace but the maps confused us and we were quite happy to explore the city anyway. We arrived there during the lunch break so we went to grab some pho (noodles)  at a great little spot around the corner from the War museum. The vegetarian option wasn’t so good but the beef pho was very good indeed.

We went back to the museum for opening at 1.30pm and ended up spending most of the afternoon in there. In the grounds of the museum are tanks, planes and helicopters which were captured during the war. Towards the rear of the museum is an exhibition on the prisons and torture that took place during the war time, which in our opinion was as you would expect particularly one sided as we are sure that both sides committed human atrocities and torture. But as the North Communists won then you can understand the biased opinions. The main thing that attracted us to the museum was the photo exhibition that was mentioned in the Lonely Planet called The Requiem Collection based on a series of images taken by over 100 photographers that died during the war along with a little background info. One telling and very harrowing part of the museum is ‘The Agent Orange Collection’; a vivid portrayal of the lives of many children and parents who have been affected by the use of chemical warfare, many are still suffering from the long term effects of its use by the Americans.

So after spending the bulk of the day there we made our way back to the hotel via other parts of the city and found ourselves picking up a fruit shake at Zen where we ate the night before. It’s a really good vegetarian restaurant down a back street – they’re recommended in the LP.

Later on we packed ready for our cycling tour and then we went out for some Thai food that wasn’t that good to be honest. We keep looking out for decent Thai food but really we should just wait until we get there!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We arrived at 8am in Hue after a bumpy overnight sleeper journey. The bus was packed with westerners which made a change from those our travels in China, but it was nice as Helen befriended a South-American Fashion journalist and watched a few episodes of Arrested Development. When we got to Hue we took our bags off the coach and were pointed towards the Google Hotel, here we had a quick pick me up in the form of some fruit and coffee and then went off to see a few sights before our onward bus scheduled at 1.30pm.

Hue is quite small so it’s easy enough to walk across the river and over to the main sights. It was raining and quite humid, and we passed by a war museum so stopped to take a look and saw some old American army tanks before taking in an exhibition on the Vietnam war. It’s not that big an exhibition but was a good introduction to the developments of the Vietnam war. As we left along very slippery paths we walked to the Imperial Palace which is probably the main attraction in Hue. It only cost 10,000 dong each which is around 33p so we forked out the cash and went inside along with several other tourists. After a brief stop to feed the fish we continued to walk around the Palace grounds and ruins, the site is mainly made up of old Palace rooms, some have been preserved to their original use whilst many others are still as they were since being bombed in the war. Tiled floors still form the ground to many rooms but only have wooden structures and the odd wall that show where the walls would have been.

After taking in the Palace grounds we walked to a Vegetarian restaurant on our way back to the hotel to meet the bus. We chose a few local dishes along with some rice and really enjoyed it. We then made our way back to the hotel and got the bus at 1.30pm as scheduled bound for Hoi An. We arrived there at around 5pm and went to find a hotel, we had provisionally booked one place but en-route were offered a cheaper and quite decent room so we opted for this one, breakfast was included and the room was a good size with en-suite. After checking in we went to explore this picturesque river-side town, as we ventured towards the riverside we became enveloped by old quaint houses, tailoring shops, restaurants and souvenirs. It is a very pretty town indeed and almost felt like a stage-set at times, perhaps a little over the top in terms of restoration and just oozed hundreds of western tourists on every street.

We opted for the Morning Glory restaurant close to the riverside but not on the river front for our evening meal. This came in the form of Vegetarian curry, salad, soup and grilled aubergine, each dish was bursting with flavour so based on this we decided to book ourselves onto their cooking class in two days time. Back to the hotel via some more quaint streets, tailoring shops and light displays. before an much needed early night was had.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)