Saigon

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The last couple days of our Vietnam trip have been spent checking out the sites in Ho Chi Minh City. We took a day bus here from Nha Trang arriving fairly late, after finding our hotel and grabbing a bite to eat in the touristy district, we headed back for an early night. I woke up next morning with several mosquito bite marks on my foot. It was probably pissed off at me trying and failing to kill it the night before.

The following day was spent trying to cram every tourist activity possible into one day. We managed to check out the Mariamman Hindu Temple, the War Remnants Museum, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Reunification (Independence) Palace. The temple wasn’t all too exciting, which was probably why there were no admission fees. The War Museum was very interesting as we arrived with half an hour left before it was closed. Luckily, we were allowed to reuse the tickets an hour and a half later when it reopened. We decided to stop by the cathedral next to take some pictures and headed down to the Independence Palace after when it finally opened up.

The palace was pretty huge. We learned a thing or two about the history of Vietnam (told from their point of view). The lower levels were like a maze consisting of war rooms and communication rooms. The entertainment area for the president was very nice. There was a cinema room, a games room, cars on display- reminded me of Cheryl’s uncle John’s place. We would have left earlier back to the war museum if it wasn’t for the sudden flash flood.

After sitting around for like half an hour, I decided to run to the souvenir shop in my conical hat to purchase some rain gear for us. There was a nice a lady selling cheap ponchos for a dollar each so I bought two of them (later learned the ponchos were only worth like 30 cents). We put the garbage bags on and mine already had a couple of rips in it. We found our way back to the museum and stayed till they kicked us out....for the second time. On display, there were lots of interesting articles, extremely graphic images, and old war machines like tanks, jets, guns, and bombs. We went for cheap food afterwards, booked our tickets for the Cu Chi Tunnel tour the next day, and the trip to Cambodia the day after. We passed out at the hotel when we returned as it was a very productive day.

Today was our tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. We started off with a free complimentary breakfast at our guest house. Definitely the healthiest thing we had all day: bread with cheese, watermelon, pineapple, bananas, and ants. The tour guide, who was supposed to pick us up at 830am, showed up way earlier than we had anticipated. We got ready in like 20 seconds and after throwing our 10 pound bag of dirty clothes at our hotel lady to wash, we bolted out to the tour bus.

We had a difficult time understanding our tour guide and his broken engrish. As far as I could tell, he was giving us a history lesson on the Vietnam war and how Mr Ho Chi Minh is his hero. Our first stop was of course at a tourist trap. Handicap Handicrafts. The prices there, as the Chinese would put it, were better than stealing. The same statue thing Cheryl had bought at the market the other day cost 6 times as much in this area. We shook our heads at the suckers that probably spent 100s of dollars on the items as we reminisced over the times in China when we were once in their place.

After a few hours passed by, we finally arrived at our destination- the Cu Chi Tunnels. There were four parts of the tour: a movie part, an eatery, a shooting range, and the tunnels. Turns out the admission tickets only covered the film documentary and tunnels. Like the war museum, the film was full of propaganda. The shooting range was pretty cool. For a fee, one could choose from a selection of guns used in the war and fire them in the shooting range. One bullet cost more than a dollar for the AK-47 or M16. (I’ve only used one of those in Counter Strike video games) Now that we were deaf from the shooting range, we were ready to explore the tunnels. As you can tell from the pictures, the tunnels were tight. We couldn’t even make it through the one tunnel and had to ditch out on the second exit because Cheryl’s claustrophobia kicked in.

Now it was time to head back to Saigon. We were given the option of taking a fast boat back to town for an extra 10 dollars each. Obviously, we declined. They ended up dropping us off in the city center in the pouring rain. We got soaked as we ran from street vender to street vender looking for cheap food while trying to stay alive from the crazy motorcyclists. We found a cheap veggie sub for Cheryl and a pholicious chicken noodle soup for myself. We bought some sweets as well which included a delicious carrot cake with extra hair and a mystery garbage flavour ice-cream on a bun. (it was durian, still feel like vomiting as I’m typing this out) And that concludes our day, tomorrow we head to Cambodia!

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Photos

Now you don't!
Trap door used to escape into the tunnels during war

Comments

[Debbie]

Hahah sounds awesome guys, did Cheryl have any ants?!

[Binns and Cheryl]

I think I fended most of them off... but they tried hard... so it's a possibility! Lol