Advertisement
Published: August 22nd 2010
Edit Blog Post
Ho Chi Minh City
View from our guesthouse at night Ho Chi Minh City
We left Sihanoukville in Southern Cambodia bright and early on a Mekong Express bus headed back to Phnom Penh. We had a two hour break in the capital (enough time for an extremely tasty lunch!) before boarding another bus which would take us all the way through the border and into Vietnam. Unfortunately we would only be able to say "Goood evveeening Vietnaaaam!" (hehe) as the bus was due to arrive about 9pm. The roads were fairly smooth all the way and there was no trouble at the border crossing as Vietnam requires everyone to get their visas ahead of time. We had to get on and off the bus a bit to go get our passport stamped and run all of our luggage through a security scanner. But then we were in - on to our next destination
Ho Chi Minh City.
Saigon was the original name of the city, back when it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina. It was also the capital when South Vietnam was independent from the North for a stint from the 1950s to mid 1970's. The name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City when
Cao Dai temple
Very prreeetty it merged with the province of Gia Dinh and it was named after the beloved former president of Vietnam. However, the locals still commonly call it Saigon and it's still used on a lot of the shop names and addresses, particuarly in distict 1.
When we arrived at the guesthouse we had booked for the night we were told that there had been a fire up the street and that none of the rooms had power or running water (despite everything working perfectly well downstairs!) We figured this may be another way of saying "we double booked your room" (which is commonly done in Vietnam). We were then taken to the manager's brother's hotel down the street which apparently had a spare room. When we got there we were told it was full. We were then offered a room in a guesthouse across the street but it was a twin room on the fourth floor and not what we had booked. At first they only offered us a paltry discount which would mean not saving any money at all for the inconvience. In the end after some tired negotiations we saved about $5 USD and retired up (many) stairs
Cao Dai 2
Inside the temple for a much needed shower and to rest our wary bodies.
The next morning we had breakfast then moved back into our original hotel with the promise of a $2 USD discount on our room each night we stayed. The room was much nicer than the previous one, but still a 6 floor climb to our room.
Moto Mafia We set out to see some of the sights of the city. It was here that we had our first encounter with what Cath termed the "Moto Mafia". We had experienced a lot of motorbike traffic in Thailand but nothing could prepare us for the onslaught in Ho Chi. Worse is that to cross the road you just have to walk slowly out past the bikes and just hope that they all drive around you. Everytime Cath managed to get to the footpath on the otherside of the road she felt like she had had a close brush with death! We learnt later that around 12,000 Vietnamese die every year in motorbike accidents. And judging by the roadrules here, i.e lackof, we weren't suprised. However, it does make sense to have a bike than a car in the
Prayer time
At the temple city. Bikes allow the traffic to flow at a reasonable pace and if everyone owned a car there would be constant gridlock. Perhaps NYC can take a hint from that!! Unfortunately when walking around you also notice the amount of pollution in the air which gets a bit much after a while.
So we decided to spend most of the day orientating ourselves in the city. We passed by the Notre Dame Cathedral (Yes, we're still in Saigon, not Paris!) and the Reunification Palace and did a bit of window shopping.
Cu Chi tunnels
The next day we boarded our minivan for the day trip we had booked to the Cu Chi tunnels, a 45km drive from Ho Chi Minh. The tunnels are a 75-mile-long underground maze where thousands of the north Vietnamese soldiers or Viet Cong and villagers used to live in, hide and aid their fight in the war against the US army. We were told as an extra the tour would also include a visit to the CaoDai temple. What we didn't know is this added on another four hour return trip on our journey!! As it was you only spend 20 minutes at
Tunnel entrance
Or Brent gets eaten by a pile of leaves? the temple, although it was very nice and we did arrive right in time for prayer.
When we arrived, finally, at the tunnels we were first told to watch an old black and white video shot by the vietnamese army in war times. While it was interesting to see the war from the perspective of someone other than the US it did have a fairly strong propaganda tone to it. We then walked around the site and came to an example of an extrance site to the tunnels. Brent managed to breathe in and squeeze himself into the hole while Cath opted to play camera woman for the time being. We were then taken around to see examples of the traps which the Viet Cong guerrillas created to trap the US and South Vietnamese army and also how the people operated and hid in the tunnels during the war. The use of the tunnels became a major factor in the Viet Cong being successful in the war. It was then time to test out the tunnels ourselves. We went down into a 50m stretch of tunnel which had been made specially taller and wider for the slightly larger western
Checking out the pit trap
You don't want to fall in here frame. It was still tiny to get through and you practically had to crawl along or walk like a duck to get through. I think most people were glad to get out after 50m! Brent went back in for another short stretch while Cath opted out the second time!
The next day we decided to give ourselves a must needed rest, or admin day, before boarding the train to our next destination
Nha Trang.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.093s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0342s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
june williams
non-member comment
aunty june
wow you guys far out well u r much braver than me i wouldnt even of attempted that tunnell but hey what an awesome experience u r having luv u guys xx luv aunty june ...........