Uncle Ho

I’ve just been on a week’s holiday to Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City is only 6 hours by bus from Phnom Penh, but the two places are completely different. Ho Chi Minh is noisy, modern and industrial and the people aren’t so smiley. It’s difficult to believe that South Vietnam is part of a communist country. It is really geared up to tourism, and I felt rather “packaged” on the tours that I took. However, I enjoyed my trip very much. I visited the famous CuChi tunnels where the Vietcong guerillas lived during the American/Vietnam war and also the fascinating spiritual Mecca of CaoDai. I had a couple of days at the lovely beach resort of Mui Ne and took three days to travel back to Cambodia by boat and bus through the Mekong Delta. I arrived back on Saturday on the Mekong river to a wonderful view of the golden spires of Phnom Penh - it felt like I was coming home!