day 21-22 .. BIRTHDAY in Saigon (HCMC)

Saigon... capital of motorbikes.. Day 21- 22

In a city with a population of 9 million there is an estimated 5 million motorbikes. That’s more motorbikes than the people of Ireland, and this is only one city ! I have no doubt that many teenagers have never been in a car in their lives as the motorbike is the only mode of transport they need. We got an evening cyclo city tour of Saigon. I was really scared going in a push bike while motorbikes whizzed around, past and toward me, but surprisingly it was a fun ride. I had a continuous smile on my face. I felt really safe as the cyclo was going really slowly, and I was even very relaxed, despite the fact the all the other traffic was bombing by. I was enjoying sitting back watching it all go by me. I suppose I was also happy as it was my big 30th birthday, and I had accomplished my dream of seeing 50 countries and all continents by the age of 30. On our tour we had 3 stops, we saw the Reunification Palace, the glamorous Post Office, the magnificent Opera house and last but not least the Notre Dame cathedral. Yes I know I’m in Vietnam, but the French who occupied the country for so many years, build themselves a mini replica of the Parisian Notre Dame cathedral so they wouldn’t feel so home sick.
There was no need to set an alarm clock the next morning, as the constant beeping from the traffic below started from 5am. Driving 60km North of Saigon we went to visit Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels were built during the war by the Vietnamese to hide from the Americans. After watching a brief documentary we walked around the old fighting ground. We even got down on all fours and climbed through the 100 meter dark, claustrophobic, oxygen deprived tunnel. The highlight of the trip for me was getting to shot a gun for the 1st time ever. I shot a round with an AK-47! First I couldn’t believe how loud it was, even with ear protectors on, it was bustling my ear drums loud. The gun was fixed mounted on a tripod and there were targets to aim at. I didn’t even bother aiming for the targets; I was more concentrated on actually pulling the trigger whilst opening my eyes at the same time. Even though it was in a very controlled environment, I was still sacred. For every gun there was a minder guy beside u who was dressed in combat gear. He was there to help u hold the gun and load the bullets. Some of the group tried a round with an M16 too, but I was happy with just my 10shots with an AK-47. It was too noisy for me to want to try again. Well that’s one think I can tick of the list of things I’ve done, and don’t ever need to do again.

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