Day 9-10 Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

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Today we left Hoi An in the morning and travelled the short distance back to De Nang to catch a flight to Ho Chi Minh City. It was around an hours flight so we arrived around 11.00am and soon collected our luggage and made our way outside to once again be greeted by our new guide Tony for our couple of days in Hoi Chi Minh City. He spoke very good english and we soon found out he was a school teacher as well as a Tourist Guide. Tony imparted some quite interesting bits of information to us like the fact that all the local people call Ho Chi Minh City by it's original name Saigon and it's only tourists and Political leaders call it Ho Chi Minh City, He told us that at the moment there are torrential downpours in the city but they would only last for around a hour between about 3 O'clock and 4 O'clock so be careful not to get caught in them if we are out and about and also that there are around 10million people living in Saigon and around 4million motorbikes. This statement became increaseingly more obvious as we got nearer the centre of the city towards our hotel. Having thought that Hanoi as it's the Capital of Vietnam was busy, maybe we were a bit niave thinking it would be quieter in Saigon, It wasn't ! Saigon is more modern than Hanoi as it has all the businesses based in it, and probably a lot bigger but the traffic is equally if not worse than Hanoi. It wasn't too long before we arrived at our hotel and Tony explained we had a free afernoon to relax or shop as our sight seeing tours only started tomorrow. We managed to get a good idea of where to go plus the name of a good restaurant out of him before he left us. We checked in our rooms which once again were very nice although the bed was a little harder than some of the others we'd encountered.

We decided to walk to the local market, but on the way to the market we had our biggest disaster of the holiday as whilst dad was taking a photo on a street corner of something that had caught his eye a motorbike with two people on it sweeped past and grabbed his camera from his hand and took off into the sea of other motorbikes never to be seen again. This put a severe downer on the day and it was the worst kind of reminder that we needed to bit more careful with our belongings. Dad however put a very brave face on things and was more gutted about all the the lost photo's he'd taken than the camera itself. We decided to lunch before braving the market and drown our sorrows with a beer and chose the "Baby Spoon" restaurant, with its particulary fetching booths with net curtain round them. The food itself was very nice, with us all chosing a more Western style lunch of sandwiches.

We headed into the market and agreed to split up and meet again later to compare purchases. The market was not just a fruit and veg market this time, but sold meat, fish, coffee, noodle soup as well as t-shirts, jeans and souvenier items. After some haggling, and a few purchases made, we explored some more and walked to the Majestic Hotel where the guidebook said had a rooftop bar that overlooked the river. As we were just yards from the hotel, the heavens opened and we dashed inside. It was early by our calculations, or that was our excuse for getting caught out! It is a very upmarket hotel, and we looked a ittle out of place in shorts. We went up to the bar and got a beer and waited for the rain to abate. It rained for over an hour and a half before after two beers we decided to make a run for it. We took shelter in some shops and doorways before fianlly giving in and getting a taxi back to the hotel.

We ventured out after freshning up and were nearly the only Westerners in the seafood place that Tony had recommended, but the menu looked nice and there was something that everyone could eat. There was a large party of locals in celebrating a birthday, which was hailed with a rendition of "Happy Birthday" in English which we thought a little strange. There was also some entertainment from a group of young people playing traditional instruments, hoewver it wasn't anything that was going to make the charts, but the locals seemed to enjoy it even clapping along. The food was lovely, and the crispy noodles were really as described, a piece shooting off down Kathryn's top as she ate.

After the meal we walked down the road to a bar on the corner for a beer, which was curiously served with cold green tea and peanuts in a sealed packet to open yourself. It was great to watch the world go by, especially as there was a street vendor by where we were sat. We debated long and hard as to what she was actually selling, it was something that she cut up with sissors and deep fried, but looked already cooked - small birds was our best guess.

Next morning we had a full day planned and it started around 7.30am so as to miss some of the morning traffic. We set off in the bus towards the Cu Chi tunnels which are the underground tunnels that the Viet Cong used during what they describe as the American War. It was a short distance outside the the city and we had oportunity to stop on the way to look at a rubber tree plantation and a village where rice paper was made . Tony gave us the story of how the rubber tree plantations came about which is to manufacture latex for condoms and told us a funny story about it. The trees are cut and the latex drips into small bowls where it is collected. We also saw how the villagers heated the rice pulp and made it into rice paper by steaming it, and left it out in the sun to dry to go hard. We even got to try some prawn and pepper rice crackers and ended up buying a bag to take on our journey.

Arriving at the Cu Chi tunnels we were led into a sunken area with seats to watch a short documentary. It had been made in the 1960's and showed actual footage of the people living in the paddy fields by days and fighting at night. It wasn't very Amercian friendly, and you certainly wouldn't be allowed to make it in this day. There was also a model of the basic tunnel layout showing that the people lived, ate and slept in these tunnels - they even had babies in them. We then walked through some of the surrounding vegitation where we could see some of the ventilation tunnels built into termite mounds, fighting trenches and then an example of the hiding tunnel. Russ managed to sqeeze himself down it for a photo, but they certainly weren't built for westerners! We then moved onto see examples of the traps that the Viet Cong set, which were vicious to say the least, and highlighted why the Amercians would never have won the war. They even wore their flip flops backwards to disguise the direction they were travelling in. We then went into one of the tunnels. You can go for over 100metres if you want, but it is bent double, and there is no ventilation. The tunnels have been widened for tourists, but you wouldn't know it. We just went for about 20 metres to get the effect as it was so hot. We then went to have to traditional food which is tapioca, sugar and green tea. They only cooked in the mornings so the smoke looked like morning mist, and had an elabarate systems of tunnels to dispurse the smoke before it got above ground. At the end of the tour, there was a shop which was oddly next to a shooting range which tourists could pay to fire different weapons.

We then returned to the city for lunch at a local restaurant, and then went next door to the War Remnants Museum. This has a number of the large tanks and planes left behind in Vietnam after the war and shows a lot of photos taken by journalists that were subsequently killed during the war. There are also a number of exhibits showing the effects of the chemical weapons that were used and war crimes committed - all told from a Vietnamese percpective.

We then proceeded in the bus to the Notre Dame Cathedral, but had to wait to go inside as there was a wedding on which the service was in english, but the couple didn't look like they were. We also went across to the Post Office designed by Gustav Effiel which has a huge picture of Ho Chi Minh at one end which is made entirely of stamps. We then went to have a nosy inside the Rex Hotel, which is currently under renovation, and decided to call it a day. The other option was to travel to China Town, but to be honest we have probably seen much of the same thing in other countries. We returned to the hotel, where dad wrote out a report of the theft incident, and Tony signed it and got the hotel to sign it as well for the insurance claim.

That night, we once again took one of the guides restaurant recommendations, and walked a short distance across town. It was very popular and we had to wait for a table, but the atmosphere was great and the food nice, even though once again the timing of the courses left a lot to the imagination. We walked back to the bar on the corner for a drink, where they were trying desperately to show Premership football, but instead were showing a jigsaw.

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Photos

Now you don't!
Russ in ambush trap