Good Morning Vietnam!

Our first stop in Vietnam was Ho Ci Minh, previously known as Saigon. As far as cities go it's rather pretty with a number of green parks at the heart of it. However, it still suffers from the same old city smog and so despite it being boiling hot for most of the day, the sun was hidden behind a thick sheet of grey. 

If crossing the roads in Phnom Penh was a death trap, trying it here is outright suicide. Whereas in Cambodia the waves of oncoming traffic drive fairly slowly whilst they weave in and out, in Vietnam they zoom past and it's the pedestrians who are expected to do the weaving. We adopted the tactic of crossing alongside locals in the hope that they knew what they were doing. At the very least we figured they'd act as human shields should a rogue moped come out and hit us.

We only stayed in Ho Ci Minh for one day but used that time to visit the War Remnants Museum. The Vietnam War was particularly brutal and the country is still suffering the consequences of it today. There's a whole exhibition dedicated to showing the after effects of Agent Orange, a chemical used by the U.S. military to destroy vietnamese crops. But it destroyed a lot more than just plants. Agent Orange has been the cause of over 500,000 birth defects in babies born in Vietnam and that number will continue to increase. Even as recently as the last ten years kids have been born with extra limbs, missing limbs, external tumours, skin diseases, mental disabilities...the list of conditions is endless and they've all been linked directly back to exposure to this chemical. It's terrifying that we have access to something which has the potential to change the human race as we know it. The photos on display are really shocking but serve as a good reminder of why it should never be touched again. 

On a slightly happier note, we've seen our first signs of Christmas! It's not at all celebrated in Asia but in the larger cities it is at least acknowledged with the odd few decorations scattered around. We found a massive Christmas tree in a hotel lobby and just had to have our photo taken in front of it. All we need now is to photoshop a woolly hat and scarf onto it and it will look truly authentic!