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Published: November 20th 2007
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Day 38 - Wednesday 7 November
Arrived in Saigon at 7am and was greeted by the usual croud of hustlers trying to get you to go to their hotel. I was still tired at not in the mood. After settling on one it was time to go back to bed for a few hours.
Watched a reply of Liverpools champions league game over breakfast then it was time to sightsee. Out of all the places in Vietnam I'd been looking forward to Saigon the most, mainly due to the pictures and stories I'd read back home about the war.
First stop was the reunification palace built in 1966 to serve as South Vietnams presidential palace. It was towards this building that the first communist tanks in Saigon rushed on the morning of 30 April 1975 the day Saigon surrendered. Apparently the building has been left just as it looked on that day.
After visiting the cabinet rooms and the presidents office we descended to the basement which was the command centre for the South Vietnamese army. The rooms still have maps on the walls, radios, telephones and typewriters of the day. There were also some interesting photographs
With 843 tank
The first communist tank to crash through the walls of the Reunification palace of the last moments of the South Vietnames government . You can see the first tank breaking through the wall and the cabinet (minus the president and vice prsident who'd fled days before), sitting waiting for the inevitable.
After the palace was a trip to the war museum and the chance to photograph various tanks, planes, artilery and bombs left by the Americans. There are also some rather harrowing photos of torture, and birth defects as a result of Americas use of chemicals.
I've given up mentioning people that I keep meeting and then remeeting a few days later as there are so many but remember Dennis the German bloke we spent a few nights drinking with in Bangkok, well I was surprised to bump into him in the war museum. Whilst we'd gone north from Bangkok he'd gone east then through Cambodia. A route we were now going to take in reverse. He said it was his last day in town before heading north so we agreed to meet up later that evening to swap notes on good places to visit and stay.
After another couple of hours wandering around the city we met Dennis in
a bar he knew that served cheap beer. Like me Dennis had to be up early tomorrow to catch a bus at 8 am so hadn't intended on staying out late.
Not sure what it is about Saigon but with the bright lights it has this incredible vibe to it that drags you in. I can imagine it was amazing in the early 70's. I eventually called it a night at half one.
Day 39 - Thursday 8 November
Today I woke up early for my trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. Only 30 km from Saigon the Viet Cong built over 200 km of tunnels from here all the way to Cambodia.
Luckily there was only myself and two other blokes on the minibus so I stretched out across the whole back seat and slept the two hour drive there.
After watching another nationalistic video we went to see the tunnels. They were quite ingeniously built with whole communitites living in them. On the first level just below the surface were the kitchens, store rooms and sleeping areas. Beneath that were another two levels were the tunnels were only 60cm by 60cm to try
and stop the Americans from entering. They were also built with exits to the river so that they couldn't be flooded out or if needbe the VC could hide under the river using a piece of bamboo as a snorkel.
Theres a section of about 100m of tunnels that you get the chance to go through but what they don't give you is a torch. Luckily I had my camera so using my flash managed to negotiate my way through. As there is a shooting range here and the chance to fire various guns the constant gunfire actually added to my experience. It seemed more realistic.
By late afternoon I was back in Saigon and time for an afternoon siesta.
Ever since arriving in Vietnam I'd been keen to experience some proper Vietnamese musical entertainment. Unfortunately I'd been struggling to find some and after visting every theatre in town which were either showing plays or touring Russian opera I gave up and went to see a waterpupet show instead. It was actually ok even though it wasn't quite what I was after.
Day 40 - Friday 9 November
Although I'd seen everything I wanted too
in Saigon I was keen to witness it on the weekend so have decided to stay another day.
After the great massage I'd had in Laos it was time to get a Vietnames one and compare. Whilst I'd been touring the tunnels yesterday Russ had ben visiting all the massage parlours in town and tracked one down that was half the price as all the others. The vietnamese one was much better, far softer.
Spent the afternoon at the market buying a few more gifts before heading back to pack up ready for the 8am bus to Cambodia tomorrow morning.
As Lou and Regan were in town, we met up for a bite to eat before Russ, Regan and myself headed out for a boys night out Saigon style. Stumbled home at 5 past 7 just 55 mins before my bus to Cambodia was due to depart..
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