After our arrival in Vietnam, we stayed in District 1 which is the central area downtown in Ho Chi Minh City.
Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the Communist takeover in 1975. With street space at an absolute premium everywhere you go, it is not surprising that the urban landscape there has unavoidably taken on the form of an upward sprawl of very narrow buildings.
Our first stop was the War Remnants Museum which documents some of the many atrocities committed during what the Vietnamese commonly refer to as The American War.
The sickening consequences of the U.S. military's decision to spray 20 million gallons of highly toxic chemicals like Agent Orange across huge swathes of the country over a ten-year period are presented through the portrayal of a tiny sample of the people they poisoned. It is estimated that up to a million people are still disabled as a direct result of its use.
Some of the deformities that the use of the toxin caused are almost beyond description.
A selection of captured U.S. military hardware is on display in the courtyard, including an enormous M107 self-propelled gun which fired a 175mm shell.
During the war, the U.S. used almost 750 Chinooks as its standard medium transport helicopter.
Of that number almost 200 were lost in combat or wartime operational accidents.
The storming of the gates of the Presidential Palace by North Vietnamese forces on 30 April, 1975 came to symbolise the disintegration of South Vietnam. The edifice has since been renamed Reunification Palace.
Ho Chi Minh's portrait hangs proudly in the central post office of the city which now bears his name. This is ironic given that his genuine popularity and status as a revered national leader is far more in evidence amongst the population in the capital city of Hanoi in the north than it is here in the South. In light of the country's recent history, this is probably not surprising.
The ao dai, a tight-fitting silk tunic worn over pantaloons, is a traditional Vietnamese national costume commonly worn by women in all parts of the country.
Vietnam has the fifth largest Catholic population in Asia, after the Philippines, India, China and Indonesia. The 5.5 million Catholics in Vietnam represent almost 7% of the population. Notre-Dame Basilica was established by French colonists and its construction was finished in 1880.
The U.S. Embassy, where the iconic rooftop picture of a helicopter fleeing the oncoming North Vietnamese Army was taken in 1975, remains a heavily fortified compound. After being moved on by security, the closest we could get for a photo was from the coffee shop on the opposite side of the street.
Like Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh City is a metropolis best navigated by motorbike. There are no restrictions as to what you can transport on the back.
As elsewhere in Asia, the locals like to pose for photographs in their own distinctive manner.
So I figured 'when in Rome' and decided to get in on the act.
For our forthcoming visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels, we enlisted the help of a guide in the shape of a former ARVN (South Vietnamese) soldier named Jacky. We were taken to meet him and his entourage the evening before our excursion and a heavy night of drinking ensued.
After a meal and a few beers, Jacky took us to a local karaoke bar, where David and I took to the stage for the most unmusical duet since Milli Vanilli. It's a pity we didn't have their youthful and rugged good looks to distract the audience from our tonal flatulence.
The sumptuous accompanying melodies were provided by a Vietnamese Charles Bronson lookalike on keyboards.
David coped with the copious intake of alcohol rather better than I did.
By the end of the evening I felt almost as wrecked as David had done 48 hours before in Phnom Penh.
Nevertheless, we succeeded in rising with the early dawn to make the 2-hour journey to Cu Chi.
The highly resourceful Vietnamese built a network of tunnels totalling 75 miles in length at Cu Chi. The Viet Cong used them as bases to launch surprise attacks, as well as a serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapons caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters.
The complex of tunnels has been preserved by the government and despite the fact that they have been widened to accommodate the large size of Western tourists, David was still unable to get even waist deep into the first tunnel entrance we saw.
Dressed in the guise of a flamboyant peacock, Jacky groomed himself specially to make an impression and stand out from the crowd wherever we went.
Having found an entrance we could fit in through, David and I ventured underground to experience the tunnels for ourselves.
It is unimaginable what life must have been like in the tunnels in their original state. Air, food and water were in short supply and the complex was infested with snakes, ants, poisonous insects and vermin.
American, Australian and New Zealand soldiers known as tunnel rats even carried out search and destroy missions below ground, armed only with a pistol, bayonet and flashlight. The additional dangers they faced included explosive booby traps and punji stake pits, as well as enemies lying in wait hoping to impale crawling intruders.
The humidity in the tunnels was so intense that after just a few minutes, David's face appeared to begin to disintegrate.
This made it all the more incredible that during periods of heavy bombing or U.S. troop movements, Viet Cong guerrillas would often be forced to remain underground for many days at a time. Sickness was rampant among the people living in the tunnels and malaria was the second largest cause of death after battle wounds. All patients had to be treated in the underground hospital.
Nearby there is a large graveyard which commemorates the Viet Cong fighters who sacrificed their lives during the war.
All graves in the cemetery are designated to be the final resting places of heroes of the motherland. However, it is very noticeable that only the Viet Cong war dead are acknowledged. Sadly there are no memorials of any description commemorating the losses of the South Vietnamese ARVN forces who perished during the same conflict.
One of the exhibits on display at the tunnels is a Russian-made MIG-21 jet fighter sent by the USSR in 1966 for use by the North Vietnamese Air Force.
A huge temple in the vicinity stands as a further memorial to the countless Viet Cong fighters who lost their lives in the armed struggle. Thousands of their names are inscribed on the interior walls.
Yet far from being a peaceful sanctuary to honour the dead, we were amazed to find hundreds of school children boisterously running around and shouting as if in a public playground. It was saddening to see that the next generation is either not being made aware of the importance of, or is completely disinterested in, its country's history.
Approximately 90 minutes from Cu Chi is the Tay Ninh Cao Dai Temple, a place of worship made famous in Graham Greene's 1950s novel The Quiet American.
Work began on the temple at Holy See in 1933 and the Cao Dai religious doctrine is a fusion of East-West ideology. The colourful and garish exterior and interior of the temple are extravagantly decorated, incorporating symbols, abstract designs and images of saints.
Cao Dai followers strive for inner peace and harmony. They are expected to participate regularly in worship services, practise vegetarianism ten days per month, purify their body and spirit and avoid killing living beings.
Diverse figures such as Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc and Victor Hugo are revered by Caodaists as saints. The most important symbol is the Divine Eye, which is visible not only throughout the temple, but also in followers' homes.
Enroute to Trang Bang we stopped off briefly at a rubber plantation, where a local villager was collecting wood.
Nick Ut's world famous photograph depicting the horrifying aftermath of a napalm attack on a group of young children was taken in the hamlet of Trang Bang in June 1972. The bomb incinerated the skin on the body of 9-year-old Kim Phuc whilst also killing several young members of her family. White House tapes later revealed that President Nixon questioned the authenticity of the picture when it was published in the New York Times, stating "I'm wondering if that was fixed".
After enduring 17 operations simply to save her life, Kim eventually emigrated to Canada. However, her brother (also pictured above) remained in Trang Bang, where he married and ran a small cafe until his death several years ago.
His widow still works in the cafe, situated just yards from where the original photograph was taken.
After returning to Ho Chi Minh City, we visited the memorial to Quang Duc, the Buddhist monk captured in a another iconic image of Vietnam when he burned himself to death at a busy crossroads in June 1963.
Duc's public act of self-immolation with a 5-gallon can of petrol was a powerful protest against South Vietnamese President Ngo Diem's continual oppression against Buddhists. Duc emerged from a car and then set himself on fire. Police were prevented from reaching him by the circle of Buddhist clergy formed tightly around him.
Buddhism is now the single largest religion in Vietnam and 80% of the population identify themselves as Buddhists. However, temples of all denominations can be found in abundance and the burning of ornate candles appears to be popular in all of them.
Vietnam today is also a haven for street vendors who come in all shapes and sizes.
Fake Rolex watches are always popular merchandise with tourists and one vendor in particular appeared to make her living just by hustling punters day and night on the street where our hotel was situated. She continually appeared at our table and with David evermore eager to add to his growing suitcase full of souvenirs and presents, she was never short of business.
Other vendors had to work considerably harder to earn a living. You couldn't help but feel sorry for the numerous petite women carrying incredibly heavy piles of books from one bar to another in the hope of successfully peddling an unauthorized bestseller hot off the press of a copy machine. The piles were so big that I struggled to lift them and yet the women hawking them around often carried them using just one hand.
However, not everybody shared the same industrious work ethic.
Indeed, it was a similar story in the local market.
After an incredible four days, we finally bade farewell to Saigon by indulging in yet another hearty breakfast in our favourite cafe, where the waitress had the most astounding knowledge of English proverbs we'd ever experienced. Despite being so small, she was most definitely a cut above the rest.
Before boarding the plane back to Manila, I used the opportunity to audaciously flirt with a Vietnam Airlines stewardess. Had she not been made of cardboard, no doubt she would have given me a well-deserved slap for my troubles.
And so we returned to Manila. Having now been living in the Philippines for over a year, I'd already felt the tremors of an earthquake and taken refuge from a typhoon. However, there are certain things in life that you have to experience for yourself before you can fully comprehend them. Clearly nothing I said to David could possibly prepare him for the severity of the deluge that was awaiting us on the other side of the South China Sea.
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