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Wednesday sunny short arvo shower
Yep as predicted another good breakfast. After breaky we were greeted by our Cu Chi tunnel guide in the hotel lobby. His name was Tommy another nice bloke. After picking up the rest of our group we left the city for an hour and a half bus trip. Where we got to see a lot of everyday business from the locals.
First stop was in the country side, a bit out of the blue really. It was at a handicap workshop, where the handicapped are paid to make crafts such as decorative plates and ornaments. There were a couple of fantastic dinning table suites that I would of loved to take home, but they were very pricy. Yhe whole place was random, nothing was mentioned to us about this place. It was like a grab for cash from the tourists. It made you think were was the money going, like the display room was fully A/C up but the workshop had nothing. I didn't even take a single photograph. Tommy also said there are more than 5 million disabled in Vietnam due to the chemicals used in the war. So I expect to probably see more of these places.
Next stop were the tunnels! Which was a real eye opener of how hard the fighting would of been. There was jungle all around us, and the tunnel entrances were so very well camouflaged into the surroundings. Even the air vents were disguised as ant hills. We got to see the some booby traps, so vicious. We also saw the VC camp meeting, medical, weapons, uniform and kitchen rooms. The kitchen was clever it took the smoke down into a chamber and expeld it many meters away from where they were actually doing the cooking. We got to try VC food and tea which they had to live on for thirty years. We tried a vege that tasted like potato. They ate this non stop, we were told that it is very hard to be destroyed even when the bombs where dropped it would start to grow where ever it was thrown. Now we could see how the VC were so small, and were able to fit down the tunnels. The tunnel that we got to go down was twice the size in width and hight as the originals and that was small! Very warm too, Couldn't image living down there they for so long as they did. They set up schools hospitals everything down there to support their families. Crazy place
We arrived back at our hotel around 2pm. Had a quick freashen up a then walked to the Ben Thang markets. Kim was after some socks but no luck everyone here is wearing Sandles. I saw a few good backpacks for about 9 bucks which I may go back for tomorrow. You can buy anything here.
Afterwards we walked to the old markets or should I say ride through markets! No one leaves there scooter in this town everything is ride through. Which is great and funny to watch. Kim picked up some socks and water. Seem to be hitting up the water a lot, I suppose this mid thirties temp does that.
In the background of the a old markets was Vietnam's tallest and 83 stories of there proudest building. We caught the lift to the observation deck on the 49th floor, man what a view, Ho chi mihn is really growing there are so many developments being built. They are also building a tunnel under Saigon river to link both sides of the city. Great view we could trace where we had been the day before and where we were heading next. Highly recommend this stop.
After the extreme heights of the tower, we were back on the streets. We walked to our previous hotel were we stayed four years ago, and tried to find a restutaunt we once ate at but no luck.
We decided to head home but Kim was happy to take the back streets with me. We found the backpacker area in doing so. There were neat little alleyways full of bars and reaturants really nice until the street vendors come around. Today's hot item was toothpaste and massages.
We chose Kim's Cafe to eat tonight, Kim is very popular name in this part of town there were Kim resturaunts and hotels everywhere. And those Kims can cook too, we had a beef and pork dish with rice tonight, with a few beers.
After dinner we keeped walking through this area and found a nice little cocktail bar also named Kim and had a few drinks. The hot item for sale here was bracelets and cigarettes, even got asked if I wanted a joint.
We decided to leave before getting too drunk, I couldn't image crossing the roads pissed here, it would be deadly.
By surprise for the first time in her life Kim new were she was going and got us home.
We had a few more drinks back at the bar in the hotel, and got talking to the waitress who is a local. she is going to help us catch a local bus and get tickets to the water pupet show, after we meet her for a coffee tomorrow morning.
We had another big but still great day, looking forward to our coffee date tomorrow.
- comments
Cathy I wondered what the tunnels were. The picture looks like it had a river running through it. Weird. How is the food going? No bad effects I hope. Keep blogging