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Published: December 11th 2006
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We left the delightful seafood in Mui Ne and caught the ‘local’ bus to Saigon. The guy that sold us the tickets did neglected to mention this fact and we were a little surprised when it pulled up outside our guesthouse. With minimal fuss our bags were dumped in to the space next to the driver and before we had seats we were off again. The bus was already ¾ full but there was only one other western couple along for the ride.
Apart from break neck overtaking maneuvers and the ability for people to alight in the middle of nowhere we arrived in Saigon 6 hours later in one piece. The trouble with it being a local bus was that we terminated at the out of town bus station. We had a rough idea of what we need to do and which local inner city bus we needed to get on. For the first time ever there was a number 26 sitting just waiting for us to get on before it moved off. It was a pleasure to only pay 3p and not the 1.50pit is back home.
Amy who is reading over my shoulder has informed me
that she wrote about getting to Saigon and the first couple of days in the last entry. She reminds me that I read it and even contributed some ideas. oops! As that is the case I’ll skip ahead to the Cu Chi Tunnel day trip that we went on, on our penultimate day in Saigon.
It started like many others with an early start. The main difference as we left to get the bus was that it was tipping down outside (our room was a box in the middle of the building). This was a novel sight as we had not seen rain since leaving the UK.
Diving back into the box we dug out our hiking boots and water proofs and scurried off to get the bus that we were going to be late for. You must all appreciate that this is us being late by Amy’s early standards, which means that we must be early (normally 15mins). Basically we arrived with 10 minutes to the deadline that everyone else was keeping.
The plan was outlined. We were heading to the tunnels in the afternoon after we had attended a religious service at the Caodai Great
Temple. For those not in the know, the Caodai is a slightly odd religion that merges religions of east and west. Our guide (roman catholic) did his best to explain a religion that he thinks is a bit hocus-pocus. I don’t think that it is simply that he wont give anyone else’s a chance I just got the distinct impression that he though them all a little bonkers and that they seem to have taken all the good/ cool bits from the other religions and dumped the difficult stuff.
The temple was very colorful and the congregation all decked out in white. We found it a little odd that we were here to see the service at 12 which lasted 40mins (they have 4 or 6 services a day) but were told the bus would be leaving at half past and that it is quite acceptable to get up and leave half way though. We both decided that that was a bit off and avoided seeing the service from inside the Temple.
We moved on to lunch- poor and then on to the tunnels. We both had high hopes for these following the shocking poor day we had
when we visited the DMZ for Hue. The Vhin Moc civilian tunnels were the best thing about that trip but they were not worth the 6am - 6pm day.
Our guide explained with lots of passion that he was on the losing side and fought along side the Americans during the war. He was very funny with his ‘I like capitalism’ speeches and a little cheeky once inside the tunnels by describing all the workers as the enemy. I think a lot was tongue in cheek!? He was the first Vietnamese person who we met that discussed a different side to the war rather than ‘look at these pictures they show scared Americans’. I think that somewhere along the line we may see a change in how the history is reported and that the evidence becomes more balanced and factual.
The Tunnel tour began with an old Viet Cong propaganda video and then our guide took us into the forest where the tunnels are buried. He spent some time discussing and showing models of how the Viet Cong made booby traps from the surrounding environment and how they utilized unexploded bombs dropped by the US. It was all
very interesting but the displays were a little wooden.
The main problem we all had was that when we got off the bus it was bone dry and after about 20 metres from the bus the heavens opened and threatened to drown us all. In our wisdom (mine) we had left our water proofs on the bus (as had most of the others). We were well and truly soaked to the core and as you can imagine at that point in time with the prospect of a 2 hour bus trip (air conditioned!) Amy was not seeing the funny side of it at all!
As part of the tour there is a shooting range! I had been a good boy, (despite the water proof issue) and was allowed to play. For a pound I bought myself 5 M16 rounds which were great fun. I would like to blame the rain for my poor accuracy and that the first round probably deafened me for the next 20 minutes.
The final part of the tour and the bit that everyone had signed up for was the chance to get down into the tunnels. The rumours are that they have
been widened to allow for western arses but our guide assured us that whilst the entrances many have been tiny and that these had been widened the actual tunnels were as they were back in the 70’s.
Even if they have it was still great fun. You move along a pre-defined route over about 100m with bolt holes every 30m. It includes a couple of sections where you descend deeper and then have to clamber back up (no steps to aid).
All the pictures are flash enhanced as there was minimal lighting! We both made it to the end and the final part was on hands and knees with my back pressed against the ceiling.
The bus journey was as damp as we had both feared but Amy was beginning to smile again. We had worked out our budget and were left with a few 100,000 dong. This meant shopping and the purchase of a load of stuff -it’s art now but will probably be tat when we look at it again in the UK. That being said we will choose carefully who be bestow our tat on!
With bags packed, but not too heavy, we
where ready to leave on the bus to Cambodia in the morning.
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DJT
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Cao Dai
Cao Dai was a great visit. But as you said, 15 minutes for the stop isn't quite worth it. We went inside. I took off my shoes and on my way out, "HMmmm... new shoes - I like these". Some lady glared at me; prolly thinking I really took someones shoes. I keep telling the wife the next trip to VN in 2008, I'm visiting the Cao Dai temple again but on my own so I can stay for the whole service and walk around a bit more. Wish you well in Cambodia - never been there but one of my Cambodian friends made it there since coming to the US in 1979. Hen Gap Lai, david