Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
After the relaxing few days in Mui Ne we pushed further south, once again, to the hustle and bustle of another big city - Saigon!
We arrived from the night bus at around 6am and dropped in the centre of tow. We followed our rough guide to a nice clean little hostel down a small alleyway. Steph once again caught up on some sleep and I watched a bit of TV and checked out our surroundings.
After freshening up we hit the city head on. We jumped on a cyclo (a weird trike thing with a bloke pedalling behind and is both sitting in front) to the war museum. We arrived just before lunch so crammed in as much as we could before it shut. During the museum's 'lunch break' we jumped back on the cyclo to check out China town. After being dropped off in what could have been the middle of anywhere, we got some food, wandered around aimlessly then headed back to the museum to see what we didnt see in the morning.
All museum'd out we popped into the bizarre Saigon Square market for some retail therapy... great! A few bargains later we emerged and went back to the hotel for some rest and to book our bus for the following day, along with a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels.
During our stay here, Saigon was also home to the 3rd annual Asian Indoor games (god knows what it is) But it seemed to be a pretty big deal so there was a big carnival in the city square that we had a look at - live music, food stalls, drinks and entertainment. It was quite cool and we decided to go 'Vietnamese' and plucked up the courage to try Crocodile and Python, wouldn't recommend it - Steph: "It tastes like salty Chicken".
The next morning we were up early to board a coach to the Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels were used by the Viet Cong during combat and served as their hiding spots, communication and supply routes. hospitals and even their living quarters. Over 16,00 viet cong and their families lived in the tunnels during the fighting with only 4,000 surviving.
The half day tour was very interesting, yet horrific. We were shown a video of how the tunnels were used and they had excavated some of the main rooms - hospital, meeting room, kitchen, so that we could walk inside. Then, we were all given the chance to walk, well crawl, through a 40 metre stretch of the tunnel. Despite a bit of panic from Steph halfway through we made it, it wasn't a nice experience and they had made the tunnels wider and higher for us fat westerners so god only knows how it must have been living down there that whole time.
At the Cu Chi Tunnels site there was also a shooting range and me and Steph were given the chance to shoot an AK47 gun, planning to take 5 shots each Steph took one, screamed and I had the remaining 9. Sacrily powerful and so loud.
Getting back to Saigon with just enough time to grab a bite to eat from our favourite bakery and jump straight on what was to be a horrific bus journey to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
A new country, a new flag on my rucksack and a new adventure.
- comments