Having Fun in Vietnam

---

Hi all,
Well again as you can see. we are way behind in our blogs. We have had a lot of trouble recently trying to add photos, hence the long delays!! More to come soon (hopefully!)

Thursday 5th April

We were up early this morning to catch the 8am bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Mia and I were feeling a bit worse for wear - her with a cold and mild fever, me with another bloody headache (for some reason, I have had quite a lot here - not a lot of fun!) Mia slept for about 3 hours of the trip, probably due to her not being 100%, even though the during that time, the roads were extremely potholed making a very bumpy ride. We arrived at a river crossing, and thereafter the roads improved dramatically. Our crossing at the border was trouble free, which was a nice change from our Thai/Cambodian border crossing!

We arrived late afternoon in Saigon (It is now officially called Ho Chi Minh City, but Saigon is what a lot of the locals use, and it sounds so much more exotic!) and Gav went and found us a place to stay in 'minihotel alley'. There are heaps of places to stay here, and they are all begging for your business. Nearly all the places are pretty much the same, so it was relatively easy to find somewhere decent to stay. The name of our guesthouse is 'Hau' and the cost is $15usd a night.

We headed off to dinner in search of the restaurant 'Lac Thien' which I had read served great Hue style vietnamese food. It was ok, not as good as I would have hoped but still not bad. Considering that I was starving, I pretty much would have eaten anything!

Friday 6th April.

Today we went on a tour with 'Sinh Tours' to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnel network of Cu Chi became legendary during the 1960s for it's role in facilitating the Viet Cong control of a large rural area only 30 - 40km from HCMC, during the war. At it's height the tunnel system stretched from the South Vietnamese capital to the Cambodian border - in Cu Chi alone there were more than 250km of tunnels. The network, parts of which were several stories deep, included innumerable trap doors, constructed living areas, storage facilities, field hospitals, command centres and kitchens.

The tunnels made possible communication and coordination between the VC controlled enclaves, isolated from eachother by South Vietnamese and American land and air operations. They also allowed to VC to mount surprise attacks wherever the tunnels went - even within the perimeters of a US army base, and to disappear suddenly into hidden trapdoors without a trace. After ground operations against the tunnels claimed large numbers of US casualties and proved ineffective, the Americans resorted to massive firepower, eventually turning Cu Chi's 420 sq km into what some call 'the most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated and generally devasted area in the history of warfare'.

We visited an area of tunnels about 50m long. The tunnels are about 1.2m high and 80cm across, and are unlit. We all decided to go down and have a go and getting through. I went first, followed by Mia and then Gav. It was very hot, very smelly (musty) and quite claustrophobic! I had to bend right over the whole way, Mia was able to just bend her head forward, but poor big Gav had to crawl on his hands and knees. A bit scary at times (a lot of the time) but after about 10 minutes we had made it through. Mia actually wanted to go down again after we had finished. No such luck for her this time! Great fun to do, but once is certainly enough! We also saw some of the trapdoors that were used by the VC and also a knocked out M-41 tank. A very interesting morning that again makes you realise the hardships that many people went through throughout the war.

After returning to Saigon, we found a great little restaurant near our guest house called 'La table de Saigon'. Fantastic food and cheap prices. Over the next few days we had the vietnamese pancake called 'Banh Xeo', rice paper rolls, sugar cane prawn and spring rolls - all delicious and off course washed down with warm beer and ice (that's how they do it here...)

Later we went for a walk around the area, to the Ben Thanh market, and also to the Rex Hotel for a drink at the rooftop bar (as recommended in the Lonely Planet) Do not do this!! The view was ok, but extremely expensive drinks a puncy atmosphere (we should have expected this form a 5 star hotel). I ordered the cheapest french wine I could ($5 a glass) and it was the worst glass of wine I have ever had. Even worse than greek retsina. Oh well.

By dinner we were craving pizza again. We have found that after a few days of eating asian food, your body craves something Western! We went to a place called 'Cappuchino Pasta & Pizza' and dined in heaven! We had a delicious spanish style pizza and caprice salad (mozzeralla, tomato and basil) , which used REAL mozzeralla and one fo the nicest olive oils I have had. If you are ever in Saigon - go there - great food and extremely cheap!

Saturday 7th April

Today we decided to head off to a local water park called 'Dam Sen'. It is probably like 'Wet 'n' Wild' which we have in QLD, but a lot cheaper (about $5 each) and heaps of fun. I think the two big kids had more fun than Mia! They had a huge kids pool with little slides and lots of equipment, but our delicate little one even found these a bit too scary. But...for us...lot's of huge different slides that kept us entertained for hours. There were two that Mia came down on with us, that she refused to go down on again. One was a huge covered black tunnel that twisted around. You went on a big double tube (Mia on Gavs lap) and you absolutely screamed down it, twisting and turning in the dark before being shot out into the pool! Gav and I took turns on most. It was quite funny watching Gav go down what is called the 'twister' which is a huge, long straight steep slide that shoots you into a large covered bowl which you spin around in at full speed before being dumped into the pool below. Someone should have told Gav that you are not meant to be dumped head first!! We had a heap of fun but got kicked out early as they had a wedding on there that night!

---

Photos

Cu Chi Tunnels
These are the hidden entrances/exits that the VC used

Cu Chi Tunnels
Tunnel entrance camoflagued under the laeves and dirt - you would never know it was there.

Cu Chi Tunnels - trap
You wouldn't want to walk over once of these...

Cu Chi Tunnels
Only just big enough for Mia to fit bent over...

Cu Chi
Whilst walking in the area, you could constantly hear AK47 gunshots from the nearby shooting range - really made you imagine what it owuld have been like in the war

Saigon traffic
Mad traffic in Saigon - So many motorbikes! Luckily we had got warmed up with the traffic in Phnom Penh which was pretty close to this!

DamSen Waterpark
Some of the slides - these were actually the tame ones!