Saigon

---

After another bus journey from Mui Ne we arrived in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. I'm going to call it Saigon on here because it's easier type! Plus it's how the locals refer to the city anyway. The weather here was boiling. I think its the first time we've hit 40°c+ on our travels and with the humidity it really gets quite uncomfortable, my flip flops even started to melt a little. Considering we started Vietnam in Hanoi and it was only 15°c and we needed a heater at night to now finish Vietnam in Saigon and the temp being 40°c it is a massive contrast from the North to the South of the country.

While in the city we strolled past the Presidential Palace, their Notre Dame Cathedral and also their central post office, designed by Mr Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame. This is also where we sent some cards back to the family.

We also booked a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, a big tourist site due to the Vietnam War but as we learnt there the tunnels were in place before the war as they had been used against the French fighting for their independence from being a colony. We got to see plenty of the traps they used to wound and kill soldiers and we also got to go through a section of the tunnel. This section was pretty much as it was during the war except they had amended the entrances and exits for tourists to get in and out. It ran for about 60m and there were exits every 10m, we got out at the 2nd exit because it did become very claustrophobic and the next bit you needed to get down on all fours to get through. This was a good trip but one thing I did notice while we were there was they had a firing range where you could fire live ammunition on a M16 or AK47, this was placed right next to a shop where you could buy alcohol. Surely this is not a good combination!

The following day from the tunnels we visited the War Remnants Museum. Tanks and planes in front of the building and then plenty of anti American photographs inside, a mixture of during the war and the consequences of the war and in particular the results of chemical weapons used by the U.S. The only way to get over the graphic photos was to head to the park in the evening, here we got to enjoy the Vietnamese playing badminton and also watching them do exercise classes while we just wanted to cool off! How anyone could do exercise in that heat I don't know.

That pretty much concluded our time in Vietnam and with only a couple of days left on our Visa we then headed for Cambodia, again by bus.

---

Comments

[mum]

in the summer time
Hey send us some of the sun. I want the food yr always eating. Talk tomorrow, love yous xxxxx