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Published: October 23rd 2012
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Hi all
So we are currently in Saigon. We had a 7 hour trip here from Mu ne. We stayed with Laura's aunties sister Helen her husband Peter and son Bodhi for 2 nights. They have been living and working here for the last 2 years. It was really nice to have a nice hot shower a comfortable bed and some nice tea for a change! On our first night Helen and Peter brought us out for a lovely meal which was a nice change from our usual backpackers haunts!
The next day we decided to go to see the war remenents museum and the grand palace. The war museum has some planes,helicopters and tanks in the grounds that you can get some pictures with. The rest of the museum displays pictures of all of the wars that went on in Vietnam. The pictures from the American war are the most horrific photos we have ever seen. There are a lot of pictures which show the damage that was caused to children from the spread of agent orange and how people are still affected by it today. It also gave stories of american soldiers and there family's who have
been affected by it, as Agent orange was dropped on top of the american soldiers in the jungle and all they had was a gas mask. They even had some baby foetuses in jars which showed some of the deformities caused by the agent orange. It was after this where Laura had enough and thought we should move on.
After a spot of lunch we went to see the grand palace were the south Vietnamese ran some of the war from. We spent some time walking around the different rooms and also the command center etc. Not a whole lot to see but it was nice.
After our 2 nights with Helen and Peter we said goodbye to them and Bodhi and checked into our hotel which is in the center of the city. Helen and Dan who we have been traveling with for the last few weeks are with us again. That night we splashed out and went for a Brazilian buffet. Myself and Dan both had 12 different types of meat and shellfish, each one came out on a skillet and the guy cuts you of what you want. Towards the end me and Dan kept
saying we can't have anymore but every time he brought something new out we just had to try it. We had to be rolled back to the hotel I didn't need to eat for 3 days after haha!
We booked one of the trips I have been looking forward to the most, our trip to go see the cu chi tunnels. Our Vietnamese guide was a former american navy officer who fought in the war against the north vietnamese. He had some crazy stories to tell along the way and when we were at cu chi. The tunnels we incredible to see and go though I don't no how they could stay down there for so long it is very claustrophobic and it gets so hot. Even worse the ones we were in are a bit bigger the the ones they were running around in. Our guide was telling us stories of how he would go down with some c4 and a hand gun to try flush them out, crazy. We also got to see all the different type of traps they had set up, which you can imagine gave some horrible deaths.
On our last night we
sat out on the street on some plastic chairs with our €0.30 pints of rice beer with all the scooters flying by, every now and then quickly moving our stools back of the street as the police came by. We met some lovely people that night and it was great to listen to there traveling stories!
Our time in Vietnam is coming to an end but we have loved every bit of it and we hope to be back again in the future.
Chat soon
Lots of love laura and Ian
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