The rain had stopped by the time we went downstairs for breakfast. There were no hints at flooding, and the forecast was mostly dry, especially in the morning.

We’re staying at the Jovia Hotel in a central part of Ho Chi Minh City. It’s definitely the most modest of our accommodations on this trip, with the exception of the overnight train from Hanoi to Hué. Coming after the exceptional hotels in Hué and Hoi An, it’s a bit of a letdown.

The bed is comfortable enough, the A/C works, and the shower is decent, but the room feels small, and poorly laid out. The breakfast, too, is the least impressive of any we’ve had so far. But there are eggs, baguettes and pho, so I won’t complain (too much).

We set off early today for our tour of the Cu Chi tunnels, which the North Vietnamese Army (known in the West as the Viet Cong) used to move undetected through the forest on the outskirts of Saigon. We had another excellent guide (all our local guides have been excellent), named Hung. “Hung Over,” he said; “so whenever you are recovering from too much drinking, you can think of me!”

With cloth maps he unrolled like ancient scrolls, he walked us through the history of the wars between first the French and then the Americans as we rolled through the city and its suburbs. He explained, with visual aids, the Ho Chi Minh Trail. He talked about the division of the country into North and South. He detailed some of the guerrilla tactics used by the NVA, and how many families had sons and daughters fighting on both sides of the conflict.

When we arrived at the Cu Chi tunnels, Hung led us along trails through the trees, stopping at various exhibits of how the tunnels were constructed, and what people did inside them: such as taking apart unexploded shells and bombs to redeploy them as land mines.

Of course, many of the shells and bombs did explode, and there numerous craters marked as being the result of B52 runs, some of the as much as four metres deep, and 20 metres in diameter.

The exhibits are all outdoors or underground, which means a higher-than-average chance of encountering bugs and spiders. and we came across a centipede, a very large spider, and a scorpion along the way.

There were opportunities to go down into the tunnels at different points, but I didn’t feel like crawling in a cramped, dark space, especially in this humidity. There was also a firing range where you could shoot an M16 or an AK47. But I’ve done that before in Las Vegas, and I didn’t feel the need to do it again.

After the tour we dropped off a couple of our tour mates at the airport. They are travelling together, and one’s visa expired early, so they left early for Cambodia. We’ll meet up with them again in a couple of days.

We went to a street food market not far from the hotel, where I had an excellent Bún bò Huế, a beer and a Kumquat juice.

Later in the afternoon, Adele and I walked to the Ho Chi Minh City Art Museum, which is filled with incredible paintings and sculptures.

The museum’s only open until five, and at quarter to they started sounding alarms. By the time we got down to the entrance, at ten to, they’d started switching off the lights.

The rain had resumed while we were in the museum, and we thought about ordering a Grab, but the app said it would be 27 minutes, so we decided it made more sense to walk back. The museum is only a ten-minute walk from the hotel.

Later, after the rain stopped again, we met up with the others in our group for dinner and, to say farewell to those who aren’t continuing on to Cambodia with us, and hello who are joining us just for that leg of our journey. Then walked home to the hotel, admiring the city lights along the way.

Tomorrow we are off for a full-day excursion cruising around the Mekong River Delta. This is something I’ve really been looking forward to since we first booked the tour.