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Day 42
Up at 6.30am, we grabbed a tuktuk to the bus station stopping in at the supermarket for essentials water, snickers and chips before boarding the MekongExpress ($20) we arrived Phenom Penh about four hours later Carly woken just the once by rain! Yeah rain somehow made it through the closed window, fortunately the rain was short lived. After a quick bite for lunch we were back on the bus again to Ho Chi Minh. This leg proved to be significantly longer with a good couple hours of passport checking before and after crossing the border. Thankfully we arrived safely in HCMC at 8pm. Too tired for searching for the planet recommended hotels we accepted the $10 room with hot water down a little alley way and stopped at the nearest restaurant for a pizza and stirfry!
Day 43 Uncle Ho's Place - HoChi Minh
After a great sleep and breaky we set off on foot. After stopping in at a tourist centre only to find some free $20 cards for the Caravelle Casino located just across the road! With the cash restricted to the poker machines we thought we could beat the system after winning $15 we took
our now $45 to Cashier only to find they were going to take the original $20 each leaving us with $5. So back to the machines, may as well lose it as give it back, when all seemed to be lost, Carly returned to the previously winning machine to spin up $87! So we took our $67 bucks and ran!
After some Sushi for lunch we were back on track, to the Reunifcation Palace, where we took a one hour guided tour and absorbed Vietnams side of the story.
Next stop was the War Remnants Museum, an utterly disturbing collection of photo's and artefacts from the Vietnam War. Photo's of soilders at war, the after effects of both agent orange, bombs and landmines, replica's of "Tiger Cage" where they kept political prisoners, the actual guillotine and box for collecting the heads and a number of tanks, helicopers and airplanes.
In search of some footy we headed to the Blue Gecko Bar- The Aussie Sports Bar will a couples hours to wait we went next door to the local BBQ restaurant which was packed! Had a range of options from frogs, pig brain soup, grilled turtle dove, goat, fried crickets and
many other interesting combo's Jez opted for simple steak and fries, however it arrived beef stir fry with french fries mixed in!!
Remembering we actually had a TV in our room (ohh the luxaries) we headed back to catch some footy and 20-20 cricket action from India.
Day 44 - Cu Chi Tunnels
With another early start grabbed breaky and set off on our Day Tour led by Thong, otherwise known as "Slim Jim" his Aussie Nickname he explained, because he eat like a bird, drink like a fish and smoke like a chimney. Rapt to have a couple Aussies on his tour, he relocated the Asian man so he could sit with us a recall his impressive Aussie vocabulary compliants of an aussie slang book we're convinced he puts himself to sleep with every night. First stop was the art warehouse where disabled locals are trained to make beautiful furniture, pictures and vases etc. Just slightly beyond our budget we left souvenier-less.
We arrived at the Cao Dai Temple for the 12noon ceramony, a combined religious group including Buddhism, Hinduism, Cathlocism and Confusism. The hold a ceremony every six hours and it lasts for about forty minutes. After
a few photo's of the colour display and guesses at some of their ages, we were back on the bus again. With a quick stop for lunch we arrived at the Cu Chi Tunnels, built by the Vietcom (VC) during the Vietnamese war. The VC were sorthern vietnamese who fought for the north vietnamese!
Here we were shown the small hole for firing from (see pic of Jez) during battle with a option of quick retreat into a covered small hole under ground. Then we entered the "Western size" tunnels which they have had to explain to allow westerners in, Jez found 30m of duck waddling enough ( he couldn't wait to get out of there!) whilst Carly continued through the 100m. We then taste tested some Tapicoca, (think we'll stick to spuds) and view the multiple booby traps including the "director chair trap" "death roll" and "tiger trap".
Next stop was the shooting field and Jez could get there quick enough, 10 rounds and an AK-47! After some impressive shooting and glad to still have our hearing we finished our tour with an informative video shown in bunker. Then it was back in the bus for a couple hours
back to HCMC. Starving we grabbed an early tea and wandered through the park entertained by some local style hacky sack (except its more like a shuttle cock) before crashing for the night.
Day 45- Return to the orphanage
Up bright and early we headed to the market in search of some books and toys to take to the Phu My orphanage, were Carly did her paediatric placement. And just when we'd given up hope we stumbled across a book/top store and loaded up on some books, pens and balls. A short taxi ride later we arrived. We were guided to the middle aged room (~5-12yrs) of children generally mobile (not one Carly had spent much time in).
Whilst Carly had tried to give Jez some warning about the children but I don't think anything can prepare you for 20 disabled children attacking you within seconds of entering a room. Our ten pin bowling set was destroyed in minutes, Carly's thongs were ripped from her feet (later discovered thrown outside) and we'd generally turned this quite peaceroom into mayhem. After a couple tango's with a boy desperate to walk, attempts at throw and catch, we finally escaped for the
refuge of the previously named splint room, here Carly said hello to a few familiar faces. Finally we stopped inthe infant room, we're I ran into Thinh my favourite (if you allowed to have favourites) from placement only to find that in three years he had barely grown an inch but still keen for cuddles and smiles. After a few more hello's and kisses (see pic) we left. Carly feeling incredibly sad, helpless but happy to have returned even for such a short time, and Jez left adament never to have kids....
After a ridiculously expensive taxi ride back we wandered around the Ben Thanh market searching for some specific souvniers out of luck again we decided to check out the Emerald Pagoda which co-incided with a massive down pour of rain.
We went to one of Carly's old favourite's for dinner before meeting up with Karl and Martha for a beer.
Day 46- Water Park
Up bright and early keen to get to the water park before our bus to Munei. We headed to the bus station with our Saigon Water park. After filling in a questionnaire for a local student we found out the Saigon water park
had closed down! With Jez close to tears he was quickly reassured that we could go to Dam Sen Park, fortunately the lovely girl was happy to direct us to right bus. We arrived at Dam Sen Park to find it was an amuzement park, with a map in hand we headed to the rollarcoster, observed the feeding of the crocodiles, bypassed the haunted house and icehouse before a ride of the spinning coaster. Finally we made it to the water park. Jez's eyes sparkling we headed to the water slides. First slide at 70m long and 19m tall quickly named "The Colonic" need we say more. We quickly went about the Love slide, Twister, Tube Slide and the Racer, before grabbing a bite to eat. As we were on limited time to get back to the city to catch the bus to Munei, we had final slides and Jez smashed himself on the swing and we got a local bus back to the centre before a massive downpour of rain.
Thankfully we had learnt the hard way to pack the ponchos and umbrella's and we made our way back to the guesthouse in the nik of time. Six hours
later we arrived in Munei, where we checked in at Nam Duong for $5 and grabbed some tea.
PS. Check out the next page for more photos.
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