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Getting a plane from Bangkok to Saigon was heaven! Only 1.5 hours! We arrived early evening and had a feast at a Vietnamese restaurant sampling the fresh spring rolls, noodles, noodle & beef soup and garlic fried morning glory. We had enjoyed our first meal in Vietnam and so went in search of Beer Hoi - the cheapest draft beer in the world. We found it was 7000VND, about 25 pence and we sat on the little plastic chairs sandwiched between lots of locals in the corner of the porch of someone's house, on the backpacker Main Street. Some street performers were dancing as Michael Jackson in the middle of the road, and moonwalking whilst somehow avoiding the motorbikes speeding past them!
The next day we conducted our own walking tour of the city. We visited the market, City Hall, Notre Dame, the Independence Palace (still used today) and the horrific War Remnants museum which told you all about the war and the effects of Agent orange. We also went up to the Saigon Skydeck on the 49th floor of a brand new skyscraper to view the city. It was a very clear day and we had a panoramic view for 200,000VND which is less than £7! Why isn't The Shard this cheap!? That evening we met Mark from my old school who now has a job in a school in Saigon so that was really nice to catch up with him.
The next day we visited the Cu Chi tunnels, a 200km network of underground tunnels used in the Vietnam war. We were led around the complex by 'Jackie', an ex soldier in the Vietnam war who fought for the Vietcong. He was the most interesting man and he told us his amazing stories about his family and the struggles of such a horrific war. When we had a look at the traps that were put in place, he showed us the one that he fell in to. Fortunately for him this trap was designed just to hold someone, however the friend he called for at the time was not so lucky. He fell into a much more lethal trap only a few metres away. Oli was one of the few brave enough to crawl into part of the old tunnels. It was a tiny opening covered by leaves that measured 40cm x 30cm. Once in, he crawled on his knees past both flying and hanging bats in the pitch black! Naturally I opted out of this along with the majority of the group and had a go in an old tank instead! The complex was an eerie place, it was raining heavily, getting dark and there was the unusually loud sound of gun shots in the background. Some of the group bought bullets and shot targets using AK-47's and other frightening guns. The gun shots were deafening. The last activity was the 'tourist' tunnels, a slightly widened original tunnel that lead 5 metres underground for 200 metres. I attempted this one and turned back as it was still too claustrophobic but Oli carried on and got to see different rooms where people would have lived. It had been a very insightful day, especially having a guide that had lived through such a war.
He kept saying 'your generation lucky, my generation evil'.
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