Ho Chi Minh city

Ho Chi Minh ( HCMC) which is the official name for Saigon is amazing! I have been here for less then 24 hours and have done so much already.

Last night I took the night bus from Siam reap in Cambodia and arrived in HCMC this morning. After having found a guesthouse and had an amazing shower I went out to explore my neighbourhood. I realised I was in the backpackers ghetto. However it's not bad at all. Compared to the aggressiveness of koh San road in Bangkok this is a very relaxed place. The locals are very friendly and not aggressively pushing you to buy something from them.

After having wandered around for a bit I decided to book a day trip to the Mekong delta for tomorrow. Thereafter I decided to go sightseeing. I walked to the independence palace and then to the war museum.

The museum both impressed and upset me. I was not the only one walking out of there with tears in my eyes. The museum had pictures and documents on what the USA did to the country during the war and what got to me the most must have been the pictures showing the American soldiers smiling and laughing whilst torturing the Vietnamese, burning down the villages and having fun with blown up corpses. To be honest I am not that well read on what happened here during that time, but after seeing what happened in Laos and now also in Vietnam during the war, it's unbelievable that the USA is let to just continue making war on country after country. After the Vietnam war, USA was charged with breaking the international law of war by using napalm, wide range of chemicals and other hugely damaging weapons.