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Published: March 15th 2011
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Ho Chi Minh. Wow. What a place! We were warned about the traffic, but nothing could prepare us for the chaos of Saigon! It was crazy, crossing the road felt like a game every time, with moto riders brushing shoulders with you as they whiz past... a little too close for comfort! We were told that 5 million mopeds apparently occupy the city's roads! After a days practice we eventually had it mastered; you literally have to step out into the oncoming traffic and walk as slowly and as steadily as you can. Eye contact and sudden movements are a definite no no, as it throws the drivers off course.
We found a reasonably priced guest house, with the help of a ruthless tourist helper employed by the city, which was situated through a few small alleyways in the "back streets" of the city! It was great seeing a different side to Saigon, viewing locals going about their daily lives.
Our first night we spent with Max who kindly brought us our credit card out (thanks again Max)! We tried to go for a drink at one of the tallest buildings in Saigon to see the view over the
city so we got all dressed up (it's a fancy, shoes only kind of place) and got a taxi there to find it closed! We therefore scrapped that idea and went back to have a drink near us instead. It was nice seeing a familiar face!
Day 2 in HCMC we spent exploring the city, we walked for miles and miles! we went to the market, a few parks, the palace, the post office, and then spent ages trying to find somewhere that could fix the virus on our memory stick! It was so hard finding somewhere that understood us but we eventually found a computer store that hopefully has fixed it!
We did some history sight seeing on our final day, visiting the cu chi tunnels and Saigon's war remnants museum. The cu chi tunnels, located around 2 hours from HCMC, is famous for its man made underground network of tiny tunnels, which were used by the Vietnamese during their war with the U.S. They were built to hide and battle against the enemy, as well as placing animal traps that were adapted for human capture. With a number of levels, the network of tunnels are extremely
complex, and also extremely well planned; with termite hills on the surface being utilised as air holes for cooking deep underground! We were shown around the area, looking at the examples of the barbaric bamboo traps, and also got the chance to go down into a short section of the tunnel network. Although we were only underground for 5 minutes, we came out sweating and needing air, god knows how they stayed down there for days on end! The tunnels were SO small we could barely fit, meaning we had to crawl through them...very uncomfortable! The war museum was really informative but incredibly shocking, with images that you should never have to see! The images along with the stories really brought home the awful events that took place! What makes it even worse is that many are still suffering, with the harmful consequences of Agent Orange still effecting today's generation.
As we left the war museum we found ourselves caught up in some kind of photoshoot, with body guards surrounding a well dressed man, who we later found out was the Paraguayan President! It was so funny as we didn't realise what was going on, we opened the doors
and were literally standing next to him during the photographs, receiving many disapproving looks from the onlookers!
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