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Published: January 24th 2007
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Well, I'm back, and before you read on, I must explain why you are receiving this now, on January the 24th, over a month after I visited all of these places....basically, the following few blogs have been written in dribs and drabs during our stay in Thailand, and if you chose to read the details of my Thailand blogs, you will understand that our stay in Thailand involved a lot of partying...and sleeping....which left little time to sit and concentrate on writing a blog....So here they are now, pick and chose what you read, and if you cant be bothered reading, then there's plenty of photos to tell the stories!!
Having packed away our beach stuff, we departed Mui Ne on our first bus, having managed to avoid bus travel until then. After 4 long, hot, boring hours, we arrived in Saigon (overnight trains are definately the way to go!) - and were conveniently dropped off in the main accomodation strip for tourists.
The first thing that stood out about Saigon was how much more 'Westernised' it was in comparison to Hanoi and the north of Vietnam in general. Fast food outlets, lots more cars (but just as many
Cu Chi Tunnels...
A typical entry for the VietCom to enter the tunnels - I could barely fit in it! motorbikes!) - it just had a more Melbourne city type feel to it. And in addition, being so close to Christmas, everything was covered in fairy lights - lots and lots of fairy lights!
We spent our first day in Saigon discovering the city - after booking ourselves in for the Cu Chi Tunnel tour and organising a couple of days in the Mekong Delta. It was a quick snap back to reality when we were confronted once again with insanely busy roads - much busier than those in Hanoi - but our discovery of the 'little green man' made life significantly easier....let me explain - in Australia, we have red, orange and green traffic lights, with little red and green men that flash and tell pedestrians when to walk....in Australia, cars stop at a red light, go at a green light, and pedestrians can walk safely (most of the time) when the little green man is flashing - simple! In Saigon also, there are red and green lights, and little red and green men that tell pedestrians when to walk....the difference is that cars dont regularly stop for a red light, and a little green man flashing on
Anyone claustrophobic?
Inside a section of the Cu Chi Tunnel system - and this is double the size of what it was when the war was on! the light seems to mean 'go' for the cars...not the pedestrians. The question- how the hell are pedestrians supposed to cross the road?!! The solution....a real life little green man, dressed in a green suit, with a high pitched whistle in his mouth, who walks out into the middle of the road and creates a path for tourists such as ourselves, to safely cross the road - the best invention ever!!
Anyway, going back on track, we spent the afternoon at the War Museum, a real eye opener and a fantastic way to learn about the Vietnam war. It is so sad to read and see evidence of the horrors of the war - the accounts were from both sides of the war and there were impressive photo displays as well as examples of the torture chambers and weapons - definately a must visit for those who travel to Saigon. The remainder of the day was relatively uneventful, at least it was until Cath and Ali decided that they were still hungry at 10pm that night and ventured out for a late night snack.....let me set the scene....a hot and humid Saigon night, Cath and Ali sitting in a
Chocolate Buffet @ The Sofitel
..for $10 all you can eat, who could resist? small cafe with their late night snacks. One detail that must be added is that they were sitting on plastic/leather seats. Ali places a 100 000d note on the table to pay for their food....a gust of wind blows the note off the table and towards the door....Ali jumps up from her seat....rrrriiiiiipppppp....no more skin on the back of her leg....the lesson? Humid weather + leather seat = dont jump up quickly unless you want a lovely purple mottled bruise (rather like a large hickie) on the backs of your legs!!
The following day we travelled to the Cu Chi Tunnels, one of the most famous battlegrounds of the Vietnam war. Despite being only 45km south east of Saigon, the bus ride was a rather lengthy 3 hours, but well worth it. The tunnel system covers a total of 250km underground - it is 3 layers deep and was buit and used by the Viet Cong (North Vietnamese guerrilla forces) during the war. It was hard to comprehend the use of the tunnels during the war - for months the guerrillas lived in the tunnels, which were also used as communication and supply routes, for the storing of food
The chocolate house
Court eat your heart out - I bet you'd like to live in one of these!! and weapons and as hospitals for the wounded. Our tour guide himself fought for the American and South Vietnamese forces, and was an invaluable source of information. The Viet Cong were exceptionally clever, and the tunnel system allowed them to pop up out of the ground to make their attacks before swiftly disappearing. We were shown numerous booby traps that were used to fend off and injure the Southern forces, as well as the camoflaged entrances into the tunnels - tiny holes that were too small for Western flighters to fit through, further protecting the tunnel system from external attackers. Today only a small section of the tunnel system is open for tourists to view - a 100m section of the tunnel has been enlarged to allow us 'larger westerners' to fit!! Despite being only 100m long, it was certainly long enough to start feeling a little claustrophobic, with Ange being the only one of us to make the whole distance (there were 2 chances to pull out as you went along!) - even I, the midget, was on my hands and knees at one point to fit through! It was crawling through this section of hot and claustrophic tunnel
that one wonders how on earth the Viet Cong could have lived down there for so many years.
On return to Saigon mid afternoon, we headed to the Sofitel Hotel - where we had heard via Linsey and Giselle that there was a $10 all you can eat chocolate buffet on offer - and having missed lunch we just couldnt resist! The sight that awaited us was enough to send a chocolate lover (yes, I'm talking about you Court!) into a state of maddness! Mini chocolate mousses, tarts, cakes, biscuits, chocolate lolliepops....and the best bit, a chocolate fondue with strawberries and pinapple bits to dip! In fact, we went so overboard with the chocolate dipping that the small fondue that they started with had to be replaced with a monster - it was not long after that we had to admit defeat, having made only the smallest dint in the chocolate goodies on offer! Needless to say we didnt need any dinner that night, and had to walk around the city for a couple of hours to justify our pig out!!
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