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Dalat had been fairly cool and wet and so when we reached Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh city as it is now called, the heat came like a slap in the face. Finding somewhere to stay was a pain in the neck as everywhere seemed to be beyond our $10 a night budget. One place that had a room that didn't tug the purse strings was down some dingy little alley, there was no way we were walking there at night! Another hotel showed us a room that looked like a prison cell. When we eventually found somewhere it was as carrying our backpacks in that heat wasn't fun at all.
Smelling fresh we headed out to find somewhere to get a drink and came across this place that sold ice drinks with these little jelly bits in them which they call pearls. They were the most refreshing ice drinks ever and stupidly delicious... we returned every afternoon. The next day we headed out to explore the city. A day out in Vietnam wouldn't be right without a trip to a pagoda and so off we went. Outside of it they had the traditional fish ponds except these one had about 8 fish floating belly up on the water, one was even quite evidently rotting... nice! Inside was thronging with people worshipping and so we thought it only right to keep our gobs shut whilst there... shame about some of the other tourists who weren't even making an attempt to whisper. The pagoda itself was really ornate and filled with huge gold buddhas and there were hundreds of incense sticks burning so it smelt pretty good too. After getting acosted by the cyclo mafia we managed to fight our way on to the main road where we wandered aimlessly for a good 10 minutes trying to decide what to do. The Vietnamese take stupidly long lunches and all banks and tourist attractions and even some businesses close down between 11.30 and 1.30pm which can be a right pain in the bum especially when you like to ''laze'' in bed until 9.30 and don't finish breakfast til an hour or so later... bloody inconsiderate if you ask me :P So after trying to pass ome tme buy grabbing a few lemon sodas in a little cafe with blacked out windows we decided to do some more aimless wandering. After Dean got himself a nice pair of knock off timberland flip flops we decided to go and eat at 'Lotto', their version of Macdonalds. Of course, being in Vietnam there was a nice selection of rice dishes which I opted for, Dean went for some fatty looking burger which actually tasted great, especially with the extra chilli sauce... he's been adding the stuff to everything he eats, ketchup is out the window! After a quick stop at the military museum which had loads of different helicopters (not very exciting at all) we headed to Reunification Palace which was equally disinteresting. I think we should've got a guide because we overheard some tourists a few days later saying how wonderful it was. It was a palace set up with all the things you'd expect a government to have and as it was only taken over in the 70s it really wasn't that impressive in terms of its appearance... maybe we're just being ignorant but we weren't all that bowled over by it. We also paid a visit to a huge cathedral which was extremely impressive and made a refreshing change from temples and pagodas.
We'd heard about a blind association in the city which offered massages and thought that this would be the perfect way to end a day of walking. So off we went ready to be massaged. After being hauled off to different sections (men n women) we were told to take off our clothes (while the blind masseuses left the room to give you some privacy...). First came the abundance of tiger balm which smells like vicks, that stuff your mum puts on you when you've got a cold. I wish my nose had been blocked coz my eyes were watering there was so much of it! Then came the massage... along with the excrutiating pain! It felt like I was being tortured and Dean informs me his was the same. The nice relaxing massage turned in to a nipping session. Massages are meant to be invigorating yes but not so painful that your toes curl, you're biting your finger nails and "clenching your arse''. Maintaining a stiff upper lip we managed to endure the pain without offending our masseuse and were both extremely relieved when we finally got to hobble out of the place.
The next day we went on a trip to a Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels. Caodaism is a fairly new religion that was stared in 1926 with the aim of uniting the Vietnamese people and stop religious indifference after a cival servant claimed to be receving messages from God. Basically it is a melting pot of many religions and beliefs and as hard as we tried, we really struggled to get our heads around it and how people could just abandon their beliefs and incorporate things from several religions. The temple itself was really interesting although a little bizarre. The front of the temple looked like a church, the middle of the building had a dome like that of a mosque and the end of it resembled a pagoda. Inside there was also clear evidence of selections from different religious places of worship. Bizarre but nevetheless intriguing. At noon their was a call to prayer and we got to watch the Cao Dai followers worshipping which was truly a moving experience.
Later that afternoon we went to the Cu Chi tunnels where the VC used to shelter during the war. The heavens opedned the miute we arrived and within 2minutes the water was up to our ankles.. no joke! Bare in mind that the tour around the tunnels is in the jungle and there are no paths and you can see how we weren't going anywhere for a while. After watching a dvd for 20 minutes whilst trying to avoid the huge millipeads crawling around on the floor, the rain finally stopped and we were able to go and check out the tunnels. The VC must have been tiny because even though they had widened them for tourists, there was one part where we had to crawl on our arses and Dean was doubtful as to whether or not he was going any further... good job we're not claustrophobic. They also had on display some of the weapons used by the VC and some of the traps to used to capture Americans or free them of a limb or two. Trap doors with huge spikes underneath them being the nicer of them! There was also an opporutnity to shoot an AK47 for a quid a bullet. Dean was all up for a shot but when the guys infront of him bought 50 bullets he bailed due to embarassmet at the one he was about to buy.
Next day we headed to the Mekong Delta... blog up tomorrow.
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