Ho Chi Minh City, end of our Vietnam adventure

We got a quick look at Danang as we drove to the airport and it seemed quite nice in a more modern way. I'd been trying to get a window seat every flight, unsuccessfully, and again this time I had a man between me and the window, but I had the most interesting conversation with him. He had been one of the boat people in 1969, when his parents put him and his younger brother on a small boat out of Vietnam to escape the bombing. He told me all about that experience and answered the questions I'd been building up as we travelled around, but hadn't found anyone to ask.

Lots of hangers for the B52s still remain at the airports.

Everyone had said that Saigon was a madhouse but nothing could have prepared us for just how chaotic is it.

View from the taxi from the airport - 7km took an hour.

The roads are jammed packed with mostly motor scooters, but also more trucks and cabs than in other places. There must be some road rules, but it was hard to figure out what they were.

Note the very young girl standing between the scooter driver and presumably her older brother. This is very common and you often see a baby and a child and a mother and father on one scooter. Crossing the very wide roads on foot is a terrifying experience. You can't wait for the traffic to ease - it doesn't. You just have to set off slowly and hold your nerve. The theory is that if you go at a slow steady pace the traffic can see you and go around you, but with dozens of vehicles swerving to avoid you, it is an unnerving experience.

We did do it quite a few times, but it didn't ever get less scary. Pedestrian crossings don't mean a thing.

As we were only there less than a day we didn't bother with luxury, as you can see, but this hotel did win the prize for the best shower.

A feature of this trip was our classic map reading. We would have been better to go out, toss a coin for the direction and go that way. However, we did find our way to the Reunification Palace, the place the communists crashed their way into when they took power. It's been left pretty much as it was and was interesting.

The basement was very well organised, but a bit scary. This photo of one of the many communications rooms is for John, who had better appreciate it.

Marion high-tails it out of there.

The other venue we visited was the War Remnants Museum, which was absolutely harrowing. I learnt a lot on this trip in general and it was a much more emotional experience than I'd anticipated. There's still a lot of evidence of the human cost of war in the people on the streets. Saigon does have some nice features - it's got quite a French colonial feel to some of the architecture and some lovely parks and lots of sculptures.

However, it was not the high point of the trip and I wouldn't want to go back there again, but perhaps the War Remnants Museum was a fitting place to end our great adventure. We did have a great time.