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Ho Chi Minh City,
Now in the south of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City (previously Saigon) was a must see. The city boasts a vast and complex history as well as the life and bustle of a modern city. Not knowing a great deal of the history of Vietnam, beyond Black Halk Down and Platoon, we saw it as the perfect opportunity to learn more of its modern and collonial past. First port of call on our interlectual quest, was the war remenants museum. This museum, which Alice attended at her own free will, houses a variety of artifacts and exhibits recording the Vietnamese struggle with the French collonialists from 1860 to the end of the war with America in 1979. As you can imagine, the some of the exhibits and especially the photo's are very moving. At times some of the reading was hard to finish and although well worth the visit, it was very draining. That night, feeling a little exhausted we raised our spirits with beer Hoi.
Day two we went to the Co Chi tunnels outside of Ho Chi Minh. Out tour guide for this was a vietmanese veteran of the war having fought for America. This was a great insight into a non biased view of the war, His name was Binh and his stories of the war were very detailed and gave us a great overview of what the war was like first hand. We were shown around the Vietkon tunnels in which they used to hide and battle with the Americans. The network of tunnels are ovewr 200km in total under an area of 100 square kiliometres which was heavily bombed during the war. A small section of tunnel was open to the public and enlarged for westerners. We decided we would see for ourselves and they are barely big enoungh to crouch, let alone live in. Of the 120m open to the public, we made less than half before getting out.
With our brains in overload, we resorted to beer Hoi again and planned our next stop. Our last day in Ho Chi Minh City, we went to the sky deck which is 50 floors up and 360 degree views of the city, the views were amazing....
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