Charlies Blog

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Hello faitful blog followers / bored friends.

Were currently in Ho Chi Minh City, the cool capital of Vietnam (Not the shit capital Hanoi) And its pretty good 😊

Again were staying in a hotel a little over budget but thats just the way its been the whole time weve been in nam tbh, we just cant resit satellite tv, air con and a mini fridge!! Since weve been here weve been to the same 'italian' restaurant every night and the same street vendor every morning - DairyLee and Pork Baguette! But we have actually got up in the morning and done stuff every day so far which is really cool! Yesterday we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels:

The Cu Chi tunnels are a vast network of living and escape tunnels built up of the french and american wars here, they stretch for over 200km in total, all the way to Saigon River to the east and almost to Cambodia to the west. In the wars the vietnamese lived and fought in and out of these tunnels which gave them a mighty advantage over the claustrophobic american soilders who didnt dare go down them. Today most of the tunels still exist, but the vast majority of them have collapsed or have been abandoned. Obviously, the huge number of war tourists over here has proven a huge oppurtunity for income for the vietnamese so in the Cu Chi district are many tourist centres where you can go down and through the tunnels, see many of the traps and fighting techniques the Viet Cong Guerillas used and even shoot M16s AK47s M60s and sometimes Bazookas on small, very unregulated shooting ranges. All good fun ey? When me and lauren arrived, we saw the sea of western tourists, tour buses, vietnames tour guides and all the over crap. So much so that I felt almost sick and depressed to be another one of these people, coming to someones country just because theres a load of fucking awsome war films about it. After i realised that, i silently promised to my self that i would actually learn something today, and not just play soilders like a immature little boy running around a tunnel. Having said that, i still did shoot a M16 and an AK.... I mean c'mon man! Guns are cool! Apart from that, i walked the full length of the tunnels and squeezed through one of the emergency tunnels and had the lid put back on - that, was fucking scary. Made me wonder what it would be like for these 60cmx100cm tunnels to be your main home for 7 years. Not only that, but the refuge of the outside world had trigger-happy americans running around on top so "popping out for some fresh air' became like walking around a range with a bullsye on you forehead. Not v.cool maan.

Anyways, after that me and lauren went to the War Remnants museum and saw even more attrocities of the war, but only the ones the americans commited... Like all of the other museums or prisons or documentaries in vietnam; they are heavily biased in an almost hilarious way. Dont get me wrong, In the US, they're not exactly going to praise the vietnamese about thier injured or killed GIs, but i expect they give alot more respect to the vietnamese than vice-versa. Hmm ive phrased that wrong; dont take it the wrong way and think that the US had a right to be there and all that...... fuck how can i explain.... Just come to the Ho Loa prison in Hanoi and watch the documentaries on the TVs in the Museum. Lets just say there very odd.

Anyway, enough of all that, today we went to the waterpark only to finally be persuaded that it wasnt open on wednesdays after seeing the huge sign on the door saying it and the complete lack of anythiung waterry! So instead we went to the theme park next door and had an awsome time! Remember that episode of South Park when cartman had the theme park to himself? Thats what we did!!! Soo good! And they had a giant walk-in freezer the size of a sports hall full of the most amazing ice sculptures ive ever seen! After that we got popper silver service in a really posh floating restaurant on the lake inside the theme park, we both ate steak and then read our books on the lake for hours!

Tomorrow we go back to the waterpark and will get in this time goddamnit!

P.S. Dont belive any of the little history lesson that i gave without google-backing it first:
I was just trying to sound clever!

Thanks for reading

Charles

xxx

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