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We arrived in Saigon around 5am and had to wake up the hotel staff.  Quan had organised several rooms that we were able to make use of to shower and rest.  Dave went out with him to a nearby bakery to get croissants for everyone for breakfast.  It is great walking around a city as it wakes up.  The early risers get their breakfast from street-side Pho or baguette sellers, it's relatively cool and the traffic has not reached its full intensity.

No rest for the wicked, though, as we had a mission to the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 60km out of town, where the Vietcong hid and made raids on the Southern and American forces.  This ingenious series of low, narrow tunnels stretches for several hundred kilometres.  In some places there are up to three levels, and plenty of nasty booby traps for the unsuspecting enemy.  As far as tourist attractions go this is a real must see (even if you don't like confined spaces).  It gives you a pretty good sense of how the ill equipped and poorly funded Vietcong were able to grind down and eventually triumph against the might of the American army.

(L) School master Quan; (C) Dave emerges from a concealed entrance; (R) Flick in the tunnels

Consolidating our reputation on the tour as the "try anything" couple, we were down in the tunnels like ferrets at the first opportunity, with Dave the only one in the group to complete the full length open to tourists.  It didn't help when the light from the guide's torch illuminated first a cockroach and then what looked like toilet paper on the tunnel floor that he was crawling along on hands and feet... Just as well we had our supply of antiseptic wipes - indispensable for today's adventure traveller.

The Gang.  From left Jules, Jonny, UK Dave, Flick, Eva, Kim, Amanda, Marcus, Holly & Flora

There's also a firing range where you can try your hand with AK47s or M16s.  At over US$1 per bullet it's a bit steep and the weapons are mounted so you don't feel the recoil, but for the testosterone fuelled in the party (particularly Jonny, Marcus, UK Dave and dark horse Amanda) it was a loud but memorable experience.  Whatever you do though, don't take the bullet casings as a souvenir: UK Dave was just about arrested at Singapore airport.

Back in Saigon we lunched at the famous Pho 2000, presumably renamed in honour of their most famous guest, ex Pres Bill Clinton, who dined there with Chelsea in 2000 during his historic visit to Vietnam.  Then Flick, Dave and Aussi Kim headed off to the sobering War Remnants Museum, where through gripping journalistic photography and some reconstructions the full horror of what both sides did to each other is laid out.  Psychologists say that our behaviour is a function of our personality interacting with the environment we find ourselves in, and it's clear from places like this what a profound effect the environment has in reducing many of us to murdering savages in a very short space of time.

War Remnants Museum: the Pulitzer Prize winning photo of burnt naked girl escaping village after a Napalm attack.

We continued our walking tour, passing the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral (certainly the only catholic edifice we've been in that uses neon lighting and signage in its alter displays), the elegant French Colonial GPO and Town Hall buildings, the Rex and Continental Hotels (made famous in Graham Greene's "The Quiet American") and down to the Saigon River.

(L) Saigon Town Hall; (R) Saigon River

Now I have to confess that we weren't solely sight seeing.  Amanda had leant Flick her Luxe guide to HCM City.  What's a Luxe guide?, you ask.  Let's just say the Luxe is an abbreviation for luxury.  I will admit that it led us to some beautiful boutiques full of lovely things at relatively reasonable prices.  So the afternoon's outing became a scouting trip ahead of shopping phase two, which kicked in on our return from our Mekong Delta excursion.  Flick can particularly recommend Song and designer Minh Hanh's shop.

On our first evening in Saigon we went with Quan and some of the others to an alfresco restaurant outside the Ben Thanh Market (where we returned during the infamous shopping expedition and bought lacquer-ware, nodding dogs and lanterns).  There we had a great meal and Dave tried escargot with Quan: not bad - a bit like garlic squid but a bit squishier.

(L) Dave and Quan eat snails; (R) From left Gemma, Aussi Kim, Eva, Penny, Holly, Flick, Quan 

When we returned from the Delta we had an afternoon's shopping, organised with military precision by Flick.  Sadly, it was the final night of our tour, so we met the group at the rooftop bar of the Rex Hotel for some truly disgusting cocktails, then headed to a nearby Vietnamese barbecue restaurant for a most enjoyable meal (this time featuring that other Viet/French delicacy - frog's legs).