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Friday 29th May 2009, Ho Chi Minh City
Well we were meant to arrive here at 6pm but no we didn't get here till 8pm!! This was partally to do with traffic and also because the roads on the outside of the city were flooded due to the heavy rain earlier in the day! One minute we were driving on the road the next it was like driving through a river!! This is not unusual for Vietnam!
On arrival we quickly worked out that we were on the correct road for the hotel so off we went in search. The house numbers are very strange. The main numbers are on the main road but then you have side streets with extras for that number. So our hotel was 253/28. Thankfully we spotted it fairly easily. And what a hotel it is! We booked through hostel world as usual but this hotel (Cat Duy Hotel) had not been reviewed due to the fact its so new, so we took a bit of a risk and booked it. Its lovely so clean and nice and still so cheap!! After a quick shower we headed out for some dinner, we went to a Western style restaurant and both had Mexican. We also had a great amount of cocktails both here and at a bar down the road. Lovely but we both spend a bit more money than intended on Frozen Daquiris and Singapore Slings!!
Saturday 30th May 2009, Ho Chi Minh City
We both felt very rough this morning due to far too many cocktails last night, but despite this we still managed to get up fairly early!! After a quick breakfast we headed to Ben Thanh Market which we both found very over whelming it was so big and with sellers pulling at you from every direction trying to sell you their goods, so we both brought a pair of flip flops and left quite quickly!!
Second stop of the day was to see the Reunification palace which was built in 1966 to serve as south Vietnam's Presidential palace. This is where the communist tank crashed the gate on the 30th April 1975, the day Saigon surrendered. A part from a repaired front entrance the building has been left just as it looked on the momentous day.
From the palace we headed to the War Remnants Museum, the museum displays the relics of war and a heartbreaking array of pictures of the victims of war. It was a very interesting museum although very sad and at times we both wanted to cry reading the herrendous stories of the torture the victims suffered. As usual I had finished the museum in a hour and a half but it took Suzie a extra hour to finish as she's just like mum and has to read every sign available just in case she's missed something!! But it gave me some sunbathing time.
From the museum we walked to find the Norte Dame Catherdral which was a impressive building from the outside but unfortunately we couldn't go inside as mass was taking place. Across the road from the catherdral was Saigon's main post office which was worth a look with lots of international clocks, phone boxes and different counters.
We then walked back along the river to the hotel had a quick shower then we had dinner noodle soup at Pho 24 which was very nice, used the internet spoke to Mum and Rachel and then we had a early night as a early start in the morning.
Sunday 31st May 2009
This morning was a early start 07.45am as we booked to go to the the Cu Chi tunnels. It took about a hour and a half to get to the tunnels by coach. When we arrived at the tunnels we watched a video about the construction of the tunnels and then we were taken around by a guide it was a very interesting tour with lots of information clever people the vietnamease. At the end we then got the climb through the tunnels which are 100 metres long it was very hot and clastrophobic and a fairly tight squeeze even through some parts have been enlarged for westerners. A worthwhile experience but one we'll be happy not to repeat!!
We arrived back in Saigon at about 2.30pm had some lunch then we decided to treat ourselves and have our nails done. I had a pedicure and a manicure ( 2 pound - what a bargain!!), Suz just had a pedicure which cost 1 pound I love these cheap beauty salons in Asia I could get quite used to being pampered!!
After our treatments we went for a drink and wrote some postcards, picked up our laundry and then used the internet spoke to Dad updated the blog and then went for a very quick dinner as it was late and we needed to get to bed as we had another early start ready for our 3 day tour through the Mekong Delta into Cambodia.
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