We collected our bags from the Nha Trang hotel at 10pm, and walked to the train station. Our train was at 2.30am, so we were in no rush. The general plan was to stop somewhere for a drink if we saw anywhere on the way that tickled our fancy. We didn't see anywhere. After walking for about 2 and a half kilometres, we arrived at the station, and purchased water, beer and wine from a shack down the road. We then proceeded to actually kill time with the game I-spy, and watch the occasional rat and cockroach scuttle around. The alcohol helped to pass the time, and at about 1am we were joined by a Vietnamese chap who lives in Spain, called Tang. Tang was cool, and we had a nice long chat about travelling, politics, Spain, and Tet. Thanks to Tang, we knew that our train had arrived early – at 2am, rather than the 2.30am it was meant to arrive. We wished him a fond farewell as his train wasn’t until 3am, and clambered on board. We had another '6 berth hard bed’ to sleep in, but found that this was dirty, unmade, and full of sunflower seed shells and grit. It was pretty grim. We made the best of it and tried not to disturb the family below us in the carriage.

It wasn’t a great night’s sleep by all accounts . This was not helped by the family playing very loud Vietnamese pop songs via a mobile phone from 7am. We felt this was quite unnecessary, particularly as we could have continued sleeping for another four hours. Instead, we were forced to listen to the pretty terrible music, whilst in a dirty bed, where we couldn’t sit upright. It hadn’t turned out to be our best train journey.

On arriving at Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) train station, it was hot! Hot and humid, none of this 25 degree malarkey (or worse, 7 degrees). We got in a taxi and went straight to our hotel, Hoa Xuan. This was in the backpacker area called Pham Ngu Lao. Our room was small, comfortable, fairly clean, and it had a hot shower. The place was pretty cheap and it was well located for amenities, so we were happy. The hotel also had a winch up the central staircase, so we didn’t have to carry our bags up the stairs. On check in, the owners gave us a friendly ‘warning’ about not using phones on the street, because we would be robbed "within one minute" . Feeling at home, we went to sleep for a couple of hours to recover from the previous night’s adventures.

We were pretty hungry when we woke up, so headed to a nearby vegetarian restaurant. It was shut, so we went to another nearby vegan restaurant. It too was shut. We gave up and went across the road for pizza (always a good fall back option). We decided to go for a stroll to a nearby park, rather than tackle any of the major sights of the city. We headed to September 23 Park, and took in the sights of the locals playing ninja hacky-sack and other activities. A bit of greenery was nice, so we sat and chatted for a while, and shortly after were joined by a Vietnamese chap, called Tree, who wanted to practise his English. We were happy to have a chat, and soon Tree was joined by five others – none of whom knew each other. Jayna spoke to two people, and was joined by a sorry looking Australian chap who’d had a nasty motorbike accident who also wanted to talk . Ken spoke to the other four people and we chatted away for over an hour, about travel, what a vacuum cleaner is, news outlets, what we do for jobs, what is considered polite conversation questions in the UK, family members, Vietnam and our best bits of the country. All sorts, in other words.

As it got dark, we made our politest excuses to our little crowd and walked to a nearby roundabout, to see the lit up buildings. Photographing a McDonald’s with a communist hammer and sickle sign directly outside of it, we headed back via a shop to pick up water and chocolate, and slept badly.

On Friday 12th, we were off to a slightly-later-than-planned start. After breakfast, we headed to our first stop of the day: Tuong Bo Tat Thich Quang Duc. Thich Quang Duc was a Buddhist leader, who self-immolated in 1963. You may know his picture from history, or from the Rage Against the Machine self titled album. This was a memorial to him, setting himself on fire, in the name of peace for people with religious beliefs. On a busy road junction, the setting was incongruous with the act. We wandered around it and headed off to our next sad history lesson from the War Remnants Museum.

The museum had tanks, planes and artillery weapons around it, dating from the Vietnam-American war. Inside, we started at the top and worked our way down the building, together with hundreds of other people . The exhibitions started with some history of French occupation, Vietnamese liberation in 1945, then the French invading with support from the Americans. After this, the explanations got a little hazy, as the displays seemed unwilling to recognise that North Vietnam started fighting South Vietnam. Instead, it referred to Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of South Vietnam, being unpopular, his assassination, and then America being at war with the country. There were displays on how many bombs were dropped on Vietnam (a lot, as we know from our time in Laos) and the effects of Agent Orange on people and their offspring. Rooms filled with vivid pictures told the story better than any explanation could, and the full horror of the war was bare for all to see. Though the place was incredibly busy, the rooms were hushed. We saw evidence of the My Lai massacre of civilians, malformed foetuses in jars, and rows and rows of different kinds of guns. It was pretty horrific.

Feeling somewhat depressed, we headed off to the Reunification Palace, but failed to find it’s main entrance . Instead, we hopped in a taxi, and went to the Jade Emperor Pagoda. Here, we found hundreds of people again, though locals this time. Outside the pagoda, there was a Chinese dragon dance going on with some very sweaty men under the costume. Inside, it was full to bursting with people and incense smoke made it claustrophobic. We took a look at the woodcarvings at the back and got out of there.

Next, we walked to a vegetarian restaurant for some food, but it was shut. Around the corner we found a place which would do us a snack, so had a very nice small meal there, and continued on to the Botanical Gardens. Here, it became apparent that there was some child friendly event happening, so we left and went to see the Central Post Office. Designed by Gustave Eiffel, and built from 1886 - 1891, it was a strikingly pretty building. Though they were closing, we managed to sneak inside for a look at the high vaulted ceilings and old maps painted on the walls. Across the road, we could see the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was less inspiring, against the post office, and looked equally crowded. We avoided it and got a taxi back to our hotel.

Unfortunately, the taxi was a rip off taxi, as he took us the ‘scenic’ route and to the wrong place. We ended up paying three times the cost that it should have been, given the distance, but decided not to argue this one.

After an hour in the hotel, we ventured out for some delicious food at the vegan restaurant . We picked up some snacks for the following day’s travel, and headed back to the hotel to pack our bags and get ready for our next stop – Singapore!

Vietnam is a country of contrasts. On the one hand, people in accommodation and food services were lovely, as were the Vietnamese we spoke to randomly. On the other hand, we found Vietnamese who had anything to do with travel or transport, or were in an instructional job, or were at a border crossing, pushy, aggressive, forceful, loud and belligerent. We ended up doing something of a city tour of Vietnam, and were most impressed with Hanoi, despite it’s pavement issues. The countryside looked beautiful, and Halong Bay was very nice, but we didn’t go off the beaten track to see it. Even Nha Trang was a city by the beach. Tet undoubtedly had an effect on our experience, making travel more difficult and less available, and the cost of services higher. Yet we didn’t see the good side – the celebrations, the family, the niceties . The trains were a good system to get around the country, and pretty cheap, but we have no idea why everyone told us to be at the station quite so early every time. The recent history is sad and horrifying, yet we heard very little of it until we got to Saigon. We wanted to go diving but couldn’t. We were caught in the aftermath of Asia’s worst cold snap for 30 years, and endured some very cold weather in the north. Yet we had very hot, humid weather, in the south. The coastline was sweeping and dramatic but we saw little of it.

So, what would we say about Vietnam? We’re glad we went. We don’t think it’s a country to hurry back to. We were happy with our two weeks of travel there, and felt we did the established route. It was fairly cheap to visit, but beware of shysters who will try to take your money. We didn’t feel unsafe (not the same thing as feeling safe, though). It wasn’t that different from the other South East Asian countries we’ve visited, so we considered the possibility we’re travel spoiled. Instead, we prefer to think that it was nice, but we were happy to move on to something different after two weeks.