Sights in Saigon

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Day 9
After getting one of the best nights sleep I've had on the trip it was all aboard another long bus journey. We were boung for Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and had about 6 hours ahead of us. Part of the journey included a quick 5-minute ferry across the Mekong River (or some branch of it - I was slightly disoriented). Our bus journeys are interesting as although we are a fun group that gets along well, we usually keep to ourselves and allow for personal down time while en route to our next city.
We didn't have much time to explore the city so we opted to walk to the Rex Hotel (5-stars) and go to the rooftop for a drink a view that was not to be missed, or so we read. It was fairly lacklustre up there and not worth the overpriced drinks. It was nice to sit down with a small portion of the group though and have an afternoon beer.
Ho Chi Minh City also marked the end of the first portion of our tour and that meant we would be losing some of our group but more people would be joining us for the Vietnam lag. The trip is actually broken into 3 bits: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos. Myself and most of the others are doing the first two portions. So we had our group meeting for Vietnam to meet the 4 new people: two young girls from Germany, a woman born and raised in Vietnam but now living in Canada, and then a guy from Toronto who happens to be friends with Aimee from Toronto. It was by chance they ended up this same tour together. Although he actually didn't show up yet so we are still waiting for him. It'd be nice if he does show up as we're currently now at 3 males out of a group of 14. After this meet and greet and debrief, we headed to our goodbye dinner where we said goodbye to Birte and Dirk - our German engaged couple. They're off for a romantic getaway on an island in Vietnam. The dinner was at a very toursity spot: Milwaukee Grill (or something) and I went for the few items not weternized: wonton soup, and beef pho. Both were super tasty. The broth was the main selling point but I think it was because of all the salt that it tasted so good. My heart thanks me for this.

Day 10
Up at 7am for a breakfast of Vietnamese beef stew. Yes indeed, beef for breakfast. It was super tasty! Some of us were up early so we could head to Cu Chi tunnels. These are the undeground tunnels were resistance fighters intelligently put on a battle ground against American soliders during the Vietnam/American war. We were shown some of the booby traps that I remembered learning about in my Vietnam War class at university. I wish I could remember more of that class though as it might have made for a more enriching experience. We also had the opportunity to go underground and walk/crawl through some of the tunnels. What amazes me is that we had to really crouch to move around and the tunnels we were in had already been enlarged to allow for westerners to crawl into! Down in these tunnels, they had built schools, villages and hospitals! At the end of the tour, we snacked on one of the main sources of food during the war: tapioca root. We dipped them in crushed peanuts and it was surpringsly tasty. We probably ate more than our fair share. The group on this trip were 5 of the original group and the two new German girls. They are quite adventurous (in food and what they like to see/explore) so they should mix well into the group.
The tunnels were over an hour out of the city but we did make it back in time to grab a late lunch and then visit the War Remanants museum. Again, I had wished my knowledge of the war was more up to speed to better appreciate what I was looking at. I really enjoyed the photo exhibit that was a display of photos taken from photojournalists who had died during the war or gone missing. It was largely a look through American eyes but was still fascinating. We then trekked back to the hotel to prepare ourselves for our overnight train tonight! This is the first of three overnight trains we'll be taking while in Vietnam.
I now am back on track with updating this blog in terms of real-time posting about my adventures and hopefully this will continue for at least 6 days! I have discovered it seems to be my USB key itself that is not allowing me to upload photos. I'll try and figure something out though when I can.

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