I had my 20th birthday this week and my Mum flew down to surprise me which was really cool! - She checked in a chillybin worth of food so we had a massive feed - we were all still full the next day. Photos are up on my facebook.

I have exams in a couple of weeks which I am not looking forward to too much… I had my last test of the year last night so nothing due and nothing more to do until exams!

We had a couch burning outside our flat the other night so thought I would just post a very quick video of it to sign off.

We met up with Will’s step-dads mate and he has been really helpful! He has taken us out for dinner and drinks the last couple of night as well as showing us how to navigate the monorail.

We spent part of our last day in Ho Chi Minh at the reunification palace, it looks grand but as we were all pretty retarded when it came to its history the rooms held little significance and we got bored pretty quick.

A meeting room that a big decision was made in…

The inner-workings of the floor sweeper… (held about the same amount of significance for us)

Again the ever insightful Nathan shows us how to use the fire extinguisher…

There are so many gross old men with young Thai tarts, it actually makes you feel sorry for them.

We got our dinner from a street vendor the other night which was quite fun, the cooking area looked pretty gross and the old lady looked as though she had been doing exactly the same thing for the last 50 years but the food was really nice and our guts appear to have managed with the unusual diet.

Will got the half kilo crab but being an obese individual he then ordered a second meal - the waiter laughed at him along with the rest of us.

Tomorrow we are off to the Kings Palace and a few temples then hopefully the day after that we are heading off on a day trip up to the Tiger Temple and floating markets. Then depending on how all that goes book the 12 hour bus trip to Cambodia!

All very exciting!! It is great to hear from people at home so e-mail me over the weekend lol. I will post again soon

I have managed to brave getting on a scooter a few times now - it is so much fun! The other night Nath and I caught a “tok tok” across to another bar - the guy pushing us got a flat tyre half way there and just kept going, what a machine!

I took a photo of us standing outside our backpackers:

We took a tour out to Cu Chi tunnels however halfway on the 2 hour bustrip my stomach turned with unplesent results. I ended up catching a local bus back to the city - as I got on the locals stared at me, I don’t think that it is to common that white guys get on the local bus that far out of the city but I managed to make it home safe and sound I was really guttered because the others who went on got to shoot big guns but apparently they werent that cool and all locked in place - at least that’s what I am telling myself!

There a a couple more photos that I uploaded to flickr which you can see in the sidebar.

Will post again soon

Lesson Number 2: The traffic rules, there are none! It seems to be “stuff the lanes and traffic lights and just go where you want to go in the shortest distance possible”. Crossing the road is exactly like playing the game frogger, except with more traffic. I put up a couple of photos and a video of the traffic just outside our hotel.

Lesson Number 3: The Miss Universe contestants are gorgeous!! Our hotel room can see into the pool of the hotel where the Miss Universe contestants are staying. Yesterday they had a pool photoshoot so they were all out there in their bikinis - life is tough :p

The markets are really interesting although bloody hot and unfortunately not to keen on bargaining on prices. I bought some jandels which were essential and also a few DVD’s which I am sure are legit. The food is not nice although if you go to the right place it is really cheap, last night we had a pork noodles thing and a Tiger beer for $4NZ and you could get it cheaper if you really tried.

The alley below is typical of what the streets are like, anywhere you look there are people working their arses off just to make a few cents.

Yesterday we went to the War Remnants Museum which was pretty cool, they had the old planes and tanks etc. that the USA left behind. There were some pretty horrific photos as well as deformed babies that had been preserved in jars on display. They were deformed as a result of the Agent Orange sprayed during the war. They had replica cells and photos of the torture as well as the actual torture devices and guillotine. It all feels like such recent history here.

The other boys are still in bed (11:30am) and I have spent the last few hours roaming the streets on my own, the took took drivers are bloody annoying but everybody is really friendly and welcoming. We met up with Ben Bruno which is cool and today we are checking out of this hotel and heading to a backpackers. Hopefully I will be able to post again soon but if not just check my Jaiku feed for more regular updates (in the sidebar of this page).

Edit: I added a video of the traffic lol:

- Nath

I am taking a simcard phone so will be able to text Jaiku updates from anywhere we have cell coverage - these will appear on the right at the top.

Right well I better start packing!

I made a quick map outlining where I am going - in 4 days time I will be in Saigon - Mot, Hai, Ba, YO!!

View Larger Map

Well I have had my second appoinment with the travel doctor to decide which jabs I need for Thailand. It is starting to get quite exciting! Just have to go through exams first…