Ho Chi Minh City

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We spent the last few days in Ho Chi Minh City which was about 35 degrees everyday and no rain - very different from the rest of our trip so far!
We went to visit the Cu Chi tunnels which were built before the french invaded Vietnam and then extended for the vietnam war in the 1960s. It is basically an underground tunnel network that stretches for 200km that the vietnamese built so that they could live and hide underground away from the americans. The tunnels were so narrow that they had to crawl on their stomachs for most of the way, then it would open out into rooms, for example, kitchen, sleeping areas, health centre etc. The entrances to the tunnels are tiny and the tunnels themselves were kept so narrow so that big americans couldnt get inside!! They are really incredible and you can go inside yourself for about 30m and you can stay on your feet but just crouch down really low - this part of the tunnel was expanded to 3 times its original size so that tourists can now come and visit! There are examples of traps the vietnamese put in place to catch the americans - fake entrances with spikes and stuff like that!
One day we also went to the War Remnants museum which is the most graphic thing relating to the war that we've seen this whole trip. There were 5 rooms in the museum and I didn't go past the 2nd one, the first 2 were full of photos of the war and accounts from soldiers who were fighting, both american and vietnamese. Some of the photos were really quite graphic and pretty upsetting, Elaine and I decided against going into the 3rd room and onwards because the next room was models of all the torture devices that were used and also accounts of what the prisons were like etc. Sometimes museums about this stuff isn't that bad to see but this one was really awful. Bill was actually in Vietnam for 6 months back in 1968 during the war although he didn't fight - he played the flute in the band!! And he said he was aware at the time of stuff that was going on but looking round the museum 40 years later I think really shook him up.
The strangest thing I've found here is that the people are all so friendly to everyone, the first thing they ask you is always "where you from?" and if you say USA or anywhere else you get the same reaction - the americans are treated no differently. Huang's father got injured in the war but he survived, and Huang doesn't display any resentment to americans - I know he's a tourist guide so he can't but all the locals are the same. After 3 weeks of hearing about the war and seeing its effects on the country we were still just talking about it matter-of-factly, but suddenly when you see the grief and destruction for real in this museum it really is incredible that the vietnamese show no animosity whatsoever. It's also ironic that the american tourists are putting money back into the vietnamese economy to come back and see they destruction that they caused 40 years ago!!
We had a final dinner on the saturday night, Huang took us to a local place for brilliant grilled beef that you cook yourslef on a mini BBQ on the table - other items on the menu included steamed snake, grilled crocodile and steamed field-rat....?!?! We passed on that!!!
On the sunday we went separate ways and Bill, Elaine and Mike flew back to the states and I moved into a hostel close by and went out that night with the 2 other girls in my room which was really cool. Earlier I just went for a walk in the park and got approached by a couple of local university language students who wanted to ask me some questions which turned out to be, e.g. "what is the meaning of your life?", "how did your parents teach you right from wrong as you were growing up?", and "do you believe in love at first sight?"!!!!!! So anyway we chatted for about an hour and then they took me somewhere and we had some dinner at another local place, it was really nice!!
I have really enjoyed Vietnam altho it's a shame it rained for about 2 out of the 3 weeks, really made it difficult to do stuff or see things easily but never mind, these things happen. I've heard thailand is hot and sunny at the moment so we'll see when I fly to Bangkok tomorrow...!
Had LOADS of issues trying to upload photos recently, computers keep freezing on me which is SO frustrating so will hopefully get some up soon but for now it's just writing...

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