We got up at 6:15am, got ready and finished packing and left our villa by 6:45am, An was waiting to take us for breakfast. We had a slow breakfast, partially because we were early and they were still in the process of setting up when we arrived, and also because we weren’t in any particular hurry to leave.

We were taken to check-out at about 7:25am and after we had settled up the resort manager came in and said good bye to us. He and An both escorted us to the wharf for our launch departure at 7:45am. Its nice to be fair welled by the head  the resort, it continues that feeling of being special right to the end. J

We got back to the mainland in about 15mins, a much smoother trip than our ride over. Our guide picked us up and took us to the airport. We had checked in and gone to flight lounge with about 1 ¼ hrs to spare. Its not quite the same without a Qantas lounge to go to. Next stop HCMC.

We arrived in HCMC at about 10am and after getting our luggage we found our guide, Reno and driver Li. We asked to be taken to a local restaurant for lunch, we wanted to try a local dish. He took us to a small “chain type” eatery and ordered for us, we had the local specialty, Pho Tai, rice noodles in a broth with veges and beef, all for 80,000 dong (about $4.50). We then got dropped off at our hotel and checked in. We got picked up again at 1:30pm and were taken to the Unification Palace, the place in Saigon (thats what the locals still call HCMC) where the tank crashed through the main gate when the North Vietnamese marched victorious into the city.The history in the Palace was very interesting. Its seems the north has a different slant on the “American/Vietnam” war than the south has, and that they both differ wildly from that we are given in the west. The truth must be in there somewhere. From there we went to a museum specifically on the war. It was horrendous in part. It had much hardware memorabilia , tanks , artillery, etc in the grounds, and many rooms full of a pictorial history. Many of these were very gruesome in there graphic depiction  of the war. We cannot fathom why or how man can be so brutal to other men. From there we went to the Cathedral. It was originally build by the French from totally imported materials!!!! Every stone, glass window, and tile!!!!! Deb lit a candle for us all and in a way to pray for the wrongs of war on all people.

We then went to the old post office, and magnificent building and then started to walk back to our hotel. 100m into our walk the heavens opened up and we eventually stopped at a busy corner and watched the world go bye until the rain eased enough for us to continue . It had  been an interesting and very memorable afternoon tour. It is very interesting to see a war from through the eyes of the foe of the time. Very sobering!!!