Nearly back inthe Western World

Monday felt like a day off,after a rather hectic 3 days in the Central Highlands. We lounged around at or near the hotel and then caught the plane from the tiny local airport into Ho Chi Minh City (the old Saigon).

What a contrast! From the hot, dry, friendly, cheap - and let's face it - rather agricultural Central Highlands to an international airport and then rush hour in a bustling, modern, international city with more cars than we have seen since leaving the UK - and even hotter. Here are a few pictures we have taken to illustrate the scene and to also give you an idea of the rich mixture of people and things that get transported on two (or three) wheels in Vietnam.

And then we arrived at our hotel and the children jumped up and down with delight! Jackie had booked us in to the Grand Suite of the swankiest hotel in Vietnam - The Grand.

So the next few hours were spent bouncing on beds, looking out of the windows, turning on the TVs, marvelling at the 'smellies', locking and unlocking the doors,fiddling with the switches -and then going for a swim in the pool.

Then we went out for a pizza (special request from Dad who had the tummies and wanted something stabilising).

Today we swam a lot, visited the huge market, ate in a couple of westernised restaurants (we spent more on some pastries and a couple of trendy smoothies than we would have spent on 2 decent family meals in the Highlands - all of 7.50 GBP!) and then swam some more.

D went to the War Museum,a real eye-opener. (Did you know that the American War lasted 19 yrs and during that time the US dropped 5 million tonnes of bombs on Vietnam. Total casualties were over 2 million and about 75% of the Mangrove areas were totally destroyed and many Vietnamese were maimed or disabled for life because of Agent Orange? Tragic.)

They used this french guillotine right up until 1960!

Tomorrow is an exciting and sad day, as we leave for home.Sad to be finishing a fantastic adventure which we will all remember for a very long time. Sad to be leaving a country which we have begun to get to know and love. But excited to be heading home - in spite of the 24 hr flight!

Here's to the next trip!