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Published: August 6th 2007
A man and his gun
Lew before firing the machine gun. It was mounted so there was no kickback.Xin Chao from Vietnam.
Well, Ho Chi Minh City is almost as rainy as Thailand!!! We arrived on Tuesday night and were very efficient in our planning to ensure we get the most out of our stay. Wednesday we did a City Tour in an aircon bus and today we did a day trip to the Cao Dai Temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels. We have also booked our train trips all the way up to Hanoi.
The city tour was pretty good but we really could have done it ourselves if we were willing to put up with touts the whole way. It was very handy having someone take us through places like the Reunification Palace and the Post Office (sounds boring but the Post Office is a huge building, built by the French in something like 1886??). He let us take ourselves around the War Remnants Museum though. Just as well really. In that place you really need to go at your own pace. Some things you really want to shut out of your mind altogether and others you want to spend time really absorbing. There were some deformed foetuses in jars and some pretty horrific photos
Cu Chi tunnels
Holly midway through the tunnel we went through. Remember these tunnels originally were half the size of the tragedies of war. There were also tanks and airplanes in the courtyards which were pretty cool.
The Cao Dai Temple was amazing. Caodaism is the blending and acceptance of Buddism, Taoism and Christianity/Catholicism. The temple is a huge pink building with dragons and stuff all over it. We stayed to watch noon mass where a few hundred worshipers fill the temple. We were able to stand in the balconies, which go around the whole of the inside of the temple, and watch the worshipers kneeling and praying to music and gongs and a choir of about 6 girls.
We were lucky with the weather. It rained while we were in the car on the way to the Cu Chi Tunnels but stopped for us to walk around. We watched a very old documentary about the terrible things that Americans did to the peaceful Vietnamese people who lived in Cu Chi. According to the video, Cu Chi was a place people would go to picnic but "Americans came in like devils and bombed everything". The tunnels themselves have been widened to twice their original size to allow tourists (and Vietnamese people on a normal diet) to crawl
A Vietnam Motor-Truck
I stuggled to get the whole thing in the picture. We were amazed on what people fitted on their motorbikes and carts through. We didn't actually crawl, just walked bent double or squatted and inched along. It was pitch black in places which was pretty freaky. Lew bought 10 bullets for 200,000 dong and shot an M60 rifle in the rifle range. Difficult to take photos though as I had my fingers in my ears the whole time.
We head out tonight on an 11pm train to Nha Trang. We have 2 nights in Nha Trang, 2 nights in Hoi An (where we hope to have some clothes made), 2 nights in Hanoi and 2 nights in Halong Bay either in town or on a boat. We're travelling by overnight train to Nha Trang, Hoi An (actually Danang and then a bus) and Hanoi. We'll then work out how to get to Halong Bay.
Although our Lonely Planet Guide is about 5 years old, it's actually quite accurate with prices. The internet cafe we're in costs 100 dong per minute (that's 6,000 dong an hour or about $0.45 Australian) which is the cheapest the Lonely Planets says it will be. There was also a place across the road from where we are staying that was under construction 5 years ago
it still is!!!
We're both doing well and looking forward to the beach in Nha Trang. Supposedly it's not rainy up north so we hope to dry out a bit and relax.
Catch up soon.
Holly and Lew
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nun
non-member comment
loving it
you sure know how to pack it all in in the quick time. couldn't work out what the guys were doing in the handycap workshop. all looks fun.