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Published: January 17th 2011
Vinh Moc Tunnels
Deb inside tunels. These are North of the DMZWell we left our beautiful Villa in Mui Nei yesterday and arrived in Saigon/HCM....we got to our Hotel and came down with a crash from 5 star luxary to a 3 star room with a window that looks out onto the airconditioning unit. Having said that it is very clean and quiet.
We were so shell shocked by the noise of 7 million residents (most of them out on their bikes when we arrived) that we hid in our room for the night reading books and wishing we were still on the beach. By this morning we had gotten over ourselves and ventured out - although with a driver and guide (so not quite as adventurous as it sounds!). Headed out to the Cu Chi tunnels and Ella discovered that she is just a wee bit bigger than a Vietnamese Viet Cong so fitted down the original entrance up to her waist no worries (got the photo!). I waited until we were at the "western entrance" to go down and even then the sense of claustraphobia was quite overwhelming but we both sucked it up and crouched down making our way through about 15 meters through the smallest tunnel ever!
Vinh Moc Tunnels
This is where one of the exits was that lead onto a beach so they could go to the island for supplies at night Can't imagine being down there on mass waiting for the bombing to stop - that's resilience! Had a amazing 5 course lunch back in Saigon (enough of the fat jokes you lot!) ... it was all low fat, low sugar, low salt (except for the soy sauce). But have to say we are averaging 1 fruit smoothie a day - our newest addiction.
Walked through the gates of the reunification palace - for you non history buffs the famous photo of the Viet Cong tank coming breaking down the gates in 1975 was shot there. Saw where the Hueys took off from the roof and the original war room as it's pretty much as the American's left it by the look of it, it was very cool. Saw the Saigon version of Notre Dame Cathedral, sighted Hard Rock Saigon for tomorrow when we go there for t-shirts, and headed to the War Remnants museum - bit of a grisly reminder of the realities of the American/Vietnam war. There was a great exhibit of photo's by all the international and Vietnamese war photographers who lost their lives - quite moving😞 There are some stunning photo's once you aclimatise to the
content a bit (if ever?). Got the photo of the Chinook and Huey outside.
We've just had Margaritta Pizza (sorry Peat I know I'm letting the foodies down) and a quick cup of Lipton tea at the Vietnamese version of starbucks before we head back to the room to watch CNN (again).
And for those of you concerned about all the photos you will have to endure when we return, we are finally at a Hotel were we can load some up, so Brenda you may be off the hook lol. There is of course still all the video to watch lol
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Peat
non-member comment
Awesome photos, bringing back some great memories and the Pizza and starbucks misdemeanour is all forgiven. Even we had the occassional hamburger when we were there!!!!