Vietnam - with ease (Saigon to Hoi An)

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October 29th 2005

Published: December 13th 2005

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Mark and his bag

Chu Chi Tunnels

'Please let me out'

Arriving in Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh if you hold with the politics - the locals didn't seem to) we found a hotel. Later that night we had a look around and settled into the new culture.

There were only a few things we wanted to get out of this city - time willing, one being the Chu Chi tunnels, built and lived in for 20 years by the Viet Cong (formerly the Viet Minh), and the other was the museum which fellow travellers had hailed as a triumph to propaganda over fact.

The two experiences were a very good mix of information and immersion. The tunnels gave you the sense of the determination of the Vietnamese initially to overcome occupation and later to cope with the changing face of their own politics - politics torn between the left wing ideology of Ho Chi Minh and later the capitalist assistance of the US.

To gain a sense of the claustrophobia we crawled through 100 meters of dark, dirty tunnel, and later got a sense of the noise by firing 5 rounds off using an original VC rifle. During this trip we were given a brief history by Jackie,

Chu Chi Tunnels 2

'I think I've lost her'

our guide, who, during the war served as a translator for the US forces (and has 3 gunshot scars to show for it).

Later we visited the museum, but unintentionally ended up spending almost the whole time in a war photography exhibition, finding the stark black and white images more telling than the poor translations from the victor’s perspective.

In a war that initially was an internal conflict split between north and south it was interesting to see, indirectly, the aftermath on the losing southern side. Besides the blatant re-naming of the southern capital to that of 'uncle Ho', we were told a tale of hard times (throughout the whole of one evenings meal) by an ex soldier of the south. If accurate telling a story of prison and ill treatment for his 'misplaced' allegiance to a non-socialist ideology.

Next was a long and 'life threatening' journey up to Ha Noi - the present day capital. We did however enjoy a brief stay in Hoi An to break up the journey.

This 'punctuation' of trip was also accented by catching the aftermath of the tropical storm which hit the area the previous day. After driving through

Gun Man

floods which rose above the luggage bay of the coach we began to realise these compartments weren’t completely water tight - as the water flooded back out of them. Arriving in Hoi An we unpacked outside the coach and found over an inch of water sloshing around in the bags. Ultimately there was no real damage and after some tactful negotiation the travel company washed our clothes!

Hoi An is a Unesco heritage site full of beauty - so we were told. Unfortunately we spent our whole time there indulging in its primary fame, that of tailoring.

Even as far away as Laos we were advised to stop in to this area if we needed clothing of any type. Everything you buy is tailor made and most you can enjoy later that day. Whether you like our taste in clothing or not (pictures enclosed) it was a cheap and useful stop to broaden our now threadbare wardrobe.

For our next 'nerves of steel' journey we caught the bus the rest of the way to Ha Noi. This was to be another sleepless trip on an overnight coach, and if we'd have packed a cat it definately wouldn't