Ho Chi Minh City or is it called Saigon...?!?!

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If someone were to ask what my mood was today, I'd have to say sombre.

It is our first day in HCMC and we've been to the Reunification Palace where the tanks invaded on 1975. after this we went to the War Remnants Museum which we had been told is quite graphic. They weren't kidding. The first room we went into was of photographers work during the war - many of whom died for their trade. images of not only the soldiers but the families that were effected and had to flee from their homes. There was also Robert Capa's last role of film on display, a photographer that stood on a land mine whilst photographing the scenes around him. After this, which I thought was quite harrowing we went into another exhibit with even more graphic photos & unborn children in formaldhyde that were severly deformed due to the gases used in the war, Even though it was about 30 odd degrees I still had goosebumps on my arms from the photos.

After this we went to the Xa Loi Pagoda where several monks burnt themselves in protest to the diem regime (or more commonly seen on the cover of Rage Against the Machine's album).

So there you have it, although it has been an interesting day it hasn't been the cheeriest.

The following day.....
Early start this morning as we're off to the Cu Chi Tunnels, a network of tunnels used for storage and refuse. They were originally only 80cm high and 22cm x 30cm wide. I say originally, as they have now been enlarged for fat b*stards!! Learnt quite a lot there and went down the tunnels, which loads of people whimped out of but I loved it, couldn't see a bloomin' thing though! I felt like a little sewer rat, it was great!

Off to Cambodia later on today. Sorry about the tenses of this blog, only I started it a couple of days ago and then was chomping porcelain for 2 days due to a dodgy ice cream and now it's 4 days later.

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Photos

Reunification Hall
Not the prettiest of buildings!

Pagoda
We've seen so may pagodas it would be rude not to put a picture in. This one is next to where the monks committed suicide through self immolation in 1963.