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Published: April 21st 2007
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On the basis of our previous 12 hour bus journeys I was expecting another night of uncomfort and torment as I boarded the bus for Sai Gon in Nha Trang. It appeared my fears were being quickly realised when immediately the woman in front of me fully reclined her seat into my legs. "Excuse me, I don't mind you reclining your seat, so long as the seat next to you is left upright - my legs dont fit in the space" I explained. Whether she misunderstood or was simply pure evil I will never know, but she then fully reclined the empty(!) seat next to her, fully boxing me in. Luckily there were only about 10 people on the entire bus, so I immediately moved. With two seats to myself this turned out to be the best long distance journey we took in Viet Nam.
Saigon was just as busy as Hanoi, but with more cars - making the roads even harder to cross. We were staying in the backpacker area of town, full of guest houses and bars, but was a little away from the "centre" of the city. The evening we got there Zander announced that he
would be leaving the next day to go to Cambodia and Laos alone. We probably wouldn't see him again until we got home. We said our goodbyes the next day, and like that he was gone.
I spent a day travelling round Sai Gon by foot, armed with as much water as I could carry to combat the crushing heat. I visited the reunification palace where the leader of the south lived and carried out operations until the fall of Sai Gon in 1975. The palace has been left in exactly the way it looked on that day, it was like a time warp steping inside. There are still tanks pointing at the building from the gardens, and a Huey helicopter parked on the roof.
I later headed to the war museum and left feeling deeply disturbed. Among the usualy displays of weapons and tanks, were photos showing soldiers picking up the shattered remains of corpses, and jars containing the embalmed remains of agent orange affected foetuses. I can honestly say it is the most upsetting museum I've ever been to, but well worth a visit if you want to understand more about the war from the Vietnamese
perspective.
I made my way to the riverside where I was expecting to find hundreds of shacks on stilts like in the film the Deer Hunter. No such place existed (at least where I saw), I later learned that the film was shot in Bangkok. Finally I went to the Notre Dame Catherdral, a leftover from French rule. Inside it was much like any other catholic cathedral but for one difference - the statues and images were surrounded by and wrapped in neon lights, like a holy Las Vegas. Bizarre.
Keeping in line with the rest of our visit to Viet Nam we drank in the local bars with the old men and the occasional cockroach companion, before heading out to the more touristy places (where the beer was more expensive). When travelling its always exciting to go to a new city as there is usually a new beer to be tasted. In Hanoi they had "Hanoi Beer", in Sai Gon they had "Sai Gon". A small group of kids would roam the streets at night, trying to sell everything from flowers, chewing gum, drugs and women. Such was their aggressive attitude they would pick up cutlery from
the tables while you ate and make as if they were going to stab you, stopping just centimeters from your face. I was however impressed by their knowledge of English, and their creativity in making insults (the likes of which I won't repeat) when you didn't buy their services.
We took a day trip to visit the Chu Chi tunnels, stopping at the way at a Cao Dai temple. A modern religion, the followers follow Buddha, Confucious, and Jesus, and the temple was decorated all over with the divine eye - much the same as the one on the back of a one dollar bill. Apparantly William Shakespear is a prophet. On the way to the tunnels we met Mike, a really overweight American who told us the reason he couldnt get a job as a graphic designer was because "the terrorists fucked up the country with nine eleven". He told us many other things. The Chu Chi tunnels are part of the network of tunnels dug by the Viet Cong - over several decades- stretching for hundreds of kilometers- that are open to tourists. The tunnels here had been expanded by two thirds to accomodate tourists, but still
we struggled to crawl through. It was pitch black inside, lit up by the occasional camera flash, and extremely hot. The surrounding area was dotted with various war displays ranging from traditional bamboo spike traps to catch US soldiers, to burnt out tanks. And in the backround was the constant sound of gunfire, I kid you not. It turns out they even had a firing range for tourists to try their hands at different weapons, ranging from AK-47s to huge M60 machine guns. Ross and I tried our hands with a few rounds with the AK-47. The ear defenders didnt fit and I immediately blew the hearing in my right ear. For the next day and a half it sounded to me like I was underwater.
See Ross' photos here:
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