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Halo one and all!
You'll have to excuse my typing but my space bar is notvery efficient!
Ok, So what have I been up too? Well, yesterday, Caz and I went to the war remnants musem, we got a taxi from our hotel which amazingly didn't know where the museum was! The woman from our hotel explained and he seemed to know, however, when he stopped outside a museum-type building and we got out, we realised that it was actually the Ho-Chi-Minh city museum! He had already driven off so we had to walk the further ten minutes to the museum. Our map reading skills are not so fabulous, we are women afterall, so we decided to ask people if we were heading in the right direction, noone understood us at all. Even school girls who were old enough to be learning English just giggled at us, we were amazed that noone understood 'war museum' or seemed to know where it was when pointed at on a map, it's the equivalent of a London cabby not knowing where the British Museum is!
Anyway, when we got there we avidly looked round; Outside were tanks nd aircrafts and in the first exhibiton, photographs taken by reporters from the time, the war went on between 1959 and 1975 so the quality was amazing, some were even in colour. Aprox 135 photographers of all nationalities died or went missing on their missions to capture the war for those not living in it. One female photographer was photographed by another one day alive and 'shooting' and then again the next day face down in the dirt bleeding from her head, the injury that inevitably killed her. The pictures were horrific to say the least, so eye opening. They told the stories, a Viatnemese mother holding her children neck deep in water in an attempt to escape the bombings, 'A GL from the 25th infantry division carrying the debris of a Liberation army combatant's corpse', literally a head and the remains of a torsoe. We also saw mock 'tiger cages' or cells that the prisoners were kept in on Vietnamese islands, they were told they were going to learn about politics etc so they might change their views but were locked up in cages probably a quater the size of a UK prison cell but these contained 14 or so prisoners. They weren't really fed and were tortued so badly that many had permanent disfigurements. Some examples of torture given were that 10" nails were driven into bones and eventualy skulls of prisoners, they were beaten with clubs made from really thick wires, it was brutal and barbaric.
We also saw an exhibiton of weapons, bombs and explosives used and their effects. Agent Orange, for example, was a bomb that killed many working with it or in it's vacinity, but not just immediately, maybe their hair would fall out or their children would be deformed. This is rife, there are people everywhere with missing limbs and a condition as a result of agent orange that causes their bones to morph until they are almost doubled over, many die young from insufficient care, it truly was moving. I also saw pictures of the results of Napalm bombs, after seeing the burn-like scars on victims, I realised that the moped driver in Hoi An (Freddy Kruger) must have suffered from this as his werealmost identical and too horrific for many other explanations. I feel really bad for calling him Freddy now BUT in my defense, he did make me fear for my life and try and sell me to a tour company! :oS
After the museum we headed to the 'Notre Dam Cathedrale' a building in the middle of a massively busy roundabout, in front of which stands a statue of Mary which locals say sometimes sheds tears. We sat down looking at the building which was quite pleasant until a rat ran past us! We moved outta there sharpish, well, as sharp as the frightening oncoming traffic allowed us to cross the road! At night all you can see are lights flying towards you, as bikes ride side by side its almost impossible to tell if they are a car or bikes, some riders don't even use their lights but that doesn't bear thinking about! We were pretty famished so found a restaurant to get a drink, I had a delicious pineapple shake and then a chocolate biscuit with ice cream, it was nearly crunchy on the outside with melted chocolate in the middle served with vanilla ice cream with squirty cream on top! AMAZING! Caz had a chocolate and almond crepe which looked fab too! After that we headed back to the area near our guesthouse and looked round the shops where they sell lovely, lovely stuff!
We had to be up at 7am today for a tour so we tried to get an early night although neither of us could sleep for some reason so we both twitched and turned alot which made waking up so early this morning anything but a joy!
We got up and headed downstairs only to wait for 30+ mins as per usual. Our guide for the day picked us up and led us towards a packed coach where we took the last two seats. We were headed for the Cu Chi tunnels which were built by the Vietnamese during the war, originally to house weapons but when they realised how good they were for hiding in, a whole network was made, which by 1965 reached the length of 250kms! Aprox 16,000 people lived in there tunnels, sometimes unable to leave for weeks and months at a time! The tunnel was, in parts, as narrow as 80x80cm! Just large enough for a tiny asian frame but too small for an American soldier to fit through! Another reason the tunnels were so succesful! They had ingenious, yet horrific traps for any soldiers who entered and came up with clever ways to hide from sniffer dogs etc so they were often undected. The tour included the chance to enter a tunnel that had been specially widened to fit larger (western) tourists through to get an idea of the conditions (although there are no longer snakes and scorpions although there was a bat at one point!) Everyone clambered into this hole which had stairs leading down, I waited until the end, good job as it gave me the chance to see the women AND men turning round and coming out! When everyone had gone through I went down to see for myself, I was shocked! The tunnel was tiny, I would have been on all fours crawling along with NO chance of turning around to go back and the first exit was 30m away! The few that braved it mostly left after 30m although one couple did go the full available 90m (nutters) and yes, these were the ones that saw the bat! NO THANK YOU! It was incredible to see though and I cannot really begin to imagine what that would have been like! In the hot afternoons everyone had to lay on their back not moving in order to have enough oxygen to breath! The fires they had in which to cook dinner probably didn't help matters!
After the tour we went for some food with 3 lovely British girls we met who have been away from home for 2 years without seeing family etc. their german friend and another american girl, we had a great girly chat. Since then we went shopping, Caz bought war propoganda posters (I bought a small one too) and a I <3 VN T-shirt in the style of the I <3 NY ones which I love (2 quid!) and then the rains poured so we've taken shelter in an internet cafe. I feel like I'm being bitten alive and devolped another painful blister type bite today! The cream doesn't seem to be helping and they're SO itchy and sore! Yuck!
Tomorrow we have to be up at 7 again as we are going on a tour of the Mekong Delta (Floating markets and villages) Then heading into Cambodia the day after! We're on schdule to make the full moon party in Thailand on the 24th and are still having an amazing time and seeing everything we want!
I'm gonna sign out now as it's stopped raining (Ps. It's BOILING in the day here so the rain is quite welcome!)
Take care and I'll probably update next from Cambodia!
J x
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