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Published: March 5th 2013
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River traffic
All the cargo boats have eyes painted on the front So I arrived at my Hotel in one of the Districts , HCM is divided into districts 1 to 5 ( or is it 1 to 7 ? can´t remember ) they have no names just numbers, a bit of the communist touch !
I got to my district right out of the centre and away from the terrible tourist district ( 1?) I went into the Distirct 1 to get a bus ticket and it is horrible , just like being in London , Berlin , LA or any other Westernised city , full of western fast food crap and gormless looking people wandering around looking at the souvenir shops apparantly thinking this is the real Vietnam ! oh well let them do that . Where I was , by pure coincedence was was like in the gohst town part , but saying that 4 or 5 bloccks away was the war museum from the Vietnam war ( obviously ) a place where you can see relics and pictures of the attrocites of the war , a very peaceful and respectful place to take in all what happend there , everyone is quiet and very respectful .. except the
Up the river
Stuck in that horrible stuff yanks .. yes in they go all shouting and screaming " goddamn" and wearing there " airbourne , or 5th calvary " t shirts ! how embarassing ! It would be like a German going to a British war musem wearing a " we love hitler " t shirt ! did make me cringe a little bit that did !
Spent a couple of days going around the area and decided I needed a haircut I asked the receptionist for directions and of course got lost on the way . A what I thought was a nice chap pulled up on his scooter and sked in quite good english where I was going , so I told him I needed a haircut , normally I tell anyone who pulls up on a scooter in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country to bugger of but this "new me" was more gun ho and I had developed a " don´t give a shit " attitude , not a good idea really but funny though . So he told me he would take me to one , because he liked to help tourists and especially liked english , god rememebering
Going underground
Only for thin guys this now makes me realise how naive I was then , or still am ! So on i get and off he drives " around the corner " well bloody long corner was about 20 mins away ! finally got to a back street to a barbers and I was a little anxious ! Never knew where I was and worse of all no one knew else knew where i was ! But he took me into this barbers which resembled a butchers and I got beckoned to sit down as this guy pulled out his rusty scissors and razor ! I thought the motorbike guy translated what I wnated , but I ended up getting a normal Vietnamese style haircut like 70% of the population ! oh wel noting like bleniding in with the locals ! So I was about to leave , but got pushed back into the chair where he whisked another rusty razor out and did my eyebrows and ears ( yes ears, I know its embarassing! ) So up I get again to go but once again get dragged away out to the back! There was 2 young ladies waiting! oh m ygod I thought
Underground Cu Chi tunnels
Me with my new haircut Vietnamese style its a bloody whore house as well ! I just blurted " no no its ok , no thank you " laughing nervoulsy but got pushed onto a bed type thing , and then realised it was the hair wash room ! Phew ! got my hair washed and skull massaged as well ! Bloody hell I only wanted a trim , now I look like Jacky Chan and am having my hair washed and massaged !
So now I am allowed to leave cost me about 3 times the amount I was told to pay by the Hotel people but it still only cost about 3 $ and it made the barber happy to double his takings on that day . So onto my new mates motorbike and off we go to Hotel Victory ! Gets to the hotel and he say that will be so many million dongs about 10 $ ! ha ha I say what for ? for the guide sir ! but you told me you did it because you like tourists ! and I never asked you to take me to your mates 3o mns away ! Now he gets angry and starts shouting that I owe him money ! SO i shout back " you can fu** off " I threw the equivilant of 50 cents at him , about the cost of a cab and then he got really anti ! Luckily there was a policeman outside the hotel so I beckoned him over , then my new ex mate got on his bike an buggered off ! So there I am , pretty much pissed off and looking like Jacky Chan , time for a drink !
Again Trip advisor helped me to get out and about and I booked a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels following the advice there . A great speed boat trip up the river about 1 hour to the tunnels, got stuck in seaweed twice and some poorguy had to go over and free the prop , well it was nt seaweed but some sort of dense vegatation that grows in the river, this plant also flowers the pilot told us as his mate was frantically cutting us free from the stuff, amazing what info you rememebr ! Anyway arrived at the tunnels and had a great time exploring them , only us thin people could go down into the original tunnels , the fat yanks and aussies had no chance and one aussi actually got his gut stuck in there , had to giggle at that.
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