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Cu Chi I saw a show on Cu Chi a while back and wanted to visit the place before we left. Tien borrowed a SUV and six of us loaded up to go out to the village. It's about 45 minutes outside of Saigon and was a VC village back during the 50's (when the French were still around) and into the 60's and 70's when the US was fighting over there. The main issue with Cu Chi was that it was over 75 miles of tunnels! The US tried bombing the place and later on an Aussie soldier decided to try exploring the tunnels. Initially the US thought the tunnels were short, small sections but an Aussie soldier decided to explore one and after 4 days his group came out and let everyone know how ... read more

So I finally caught the cold that everyone else had on the tour. Started feeling it during the flight home. Never had any trouble with my ears before but on the descent to Saigon my ears stopped up and didn't unclog for 3 days. We spent a week just visiting relatives and being lazy. I enjoyed a few days of just laying around and recovering from my cold. The pharmacies here are on almost every block and they sell a lot of stuff, not a lot of brands we have but a few. I saw maalox and pepto-bismol for stomach issues but all the cold medicine was different brands. The ingredients were pretty much like dayquil cold medicine. They do sell anti-biotics over the counter...at least they sell amoxicillin 500mg tablets. I didn't see anything like ... read more

Plans for the day are to go to someplace called Ba Na and after that off to Hue. Had breakfast at the hotel buffet...similiar to Nha Trang but not as good. Overall the hotel last night was nice but not as nice as the one in Nha Trang. Guess we were spoiled in Nha Trang. I would say that the hotel last night is in a learning process for guests, etc. and the one in NT has more experience due to the volume of tourists. We headed up the highway to Ba Na, no idea what it was other than it had something to do with old temples, etc. When we arrived it was a new facility that is set up with a cable car run to the top of the mountain. I wasn't sure what ... read more

So it's our second day in Nha Trang...really enjoying the more laid back atmosphere so far and had high expectations for today. Actually got a full nights sleep...:D We ate breakfast at the hotel buffet again today...its pretty good...has a really wide variety of dishes. They have everything from dim sum to bacon to noodles. They also have a couple of more breakfast type soup/noodle dishes set up and an omelete station. Plus lots of fruit. I went boring with fried eggs, bacon and toast today with some watermelon. We went out front a little before 9am to meet Khoi (our guide). The tour today was to visit a beach and have lunch there, then head back around 2:30 to 3pm. We had no idea what to expect but were really surprised when we arrived. It ... read more

Guess what...we got up early again...:-) This time off to visit more relatives and the beach. Went to get breakfast, normal this time, pho. Supposed to be the best place in Saigon...its open 24 hrs/day and is packed all the time. It was really good. Headed south to meet a cousin and his family. Ended up getting down there about 1.5 hrs later and he had came into Saigon...mix up in the meeting place. So we just headed down to the beach. Took about 2 more hours to get there. The beach was in a place called Long Hai. It was a perfect day and time to be there. Being a weekday, everyone was at work. It was only 3 groups of people there including us. They serve food, etc. right on the beach. Kind of ... read more