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Published: February 29th 2016
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It’s only 4 weeks since we were freezing our wotsit’s off in Outer Mongolia, today in Saigon we are sweltering in the mid 90’s F, even got our shorts on!
Boy, did we make a mistake getting here? As we'd had a good experience getting the night bus to Hoi An, we thought we would give it another go. Armed with a couple of books and a downloaded film, we took the 22-hour bus ride from Hoi An to Saigon. First thing was that the bus wasn’t up to the previous standard with broken and ripped seats. We worried also there was no emergency exit and all the emergency hammers for breaking windows for evacuation were missing. We were delayed while 5 motorcycles were dismantled for carriage with luggage below. The more we neared Saigon the more we picked up passengers seated or laying in the aisles, as well as all manner of vegetables and fruit stowed– it added two hours to an already long journey. On a positive note, as we entered from the high road into Nha Trang we could see all the fishing boats lit up in the bay with their special squid attracting lights.
We arrived in Saigon, (officially Ho Chi Minh City but everybody still calls it by the old name). We needed a stiff drink and some comfort food. A wonderful Indian restaurant was conveniently near the hotel.
We wanted to make good use of our time in Saigon and had a good ride around the city in a rickshaw. Many places of interest are related to the Vietnam war. We stopped at the interesting but harrowing War Remnants Museum, which contains many relics of the war and explicit war photos. Continuing to weave through the traffic we stopped at a French built cathedral called Notre Dame and a pink church call Tan Dinh. We finished at the Presidential Palace, of the former leader of South Vietnam. Used between 1966 and 1975 before the North Vietnamese captured it, and it has been left relatively untouched. We thought we’d have a nose as according to the guide book, it a good bit of 60’s architecture. I’d never seen much good 60’s architecture but it was a lot better than expected, very light and airy, with a rooftop dance area, bunker, operation room and helicopter pad.
Cu chi tunnel
with my big arse. The following day we took a ride to the Cu Chi tunnels. This is an area 30 kilometres outside Saigon, where the Cu Chi villagers built and took refuge, lived, had a hospital, and basically launched their own war from below ground. Popping up behind the enemy, using a range of weapons including mines, mortars, and more horrifying, a range of death-traps for unsuspecting enemy to fall through. Of the 130km of tunnels that were dug, some still exist we had the opportunity to go down some of it. I managed to do 2 sections of the meter-high tunnels (they had been smaller but enlarged for the likes of me) before I had an attack of the Charles Bronson’s, ‘tunnel king’ of ‘Great Escape’ film fame, Alison managed to go further.
We finished off our last day in Vietnam with a visit to the Botanical gardens and Zoo.
We leave just before our visas expire, it’s been a great experience, descending into the mad motorcycle world of Hanoi, to the beautiful Halong Bay, the Phong Nha National parks with its large caves. Quaint Hoi An, then finishing with Saigon, a city that was
faster paced than Hanoi-if that’s possible. Our lasting memory will be the people, especially the wonderful staff, in all the hotels we stayed, who have helped us on our way.
Tomorrow we cross over the border to Cambodia.
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