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Published: December 17th 2006
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Saigon,
what a city! Probably my favourite city so far. The people here were great. More friendly than the north and the night life...well, bad news for the liver im afraid!!! We expected a larger version of hanoi but it is quite different. The traffic was worse than hanoi....sounds impossible but it was but the streets were wider here so it didnt seem as closterphobic as hanoi.
We stayed here for almost a week. The first few days were just spent chilling and wandering around the city. I bought a new camera so im back in business with the photos and a new watch(which i lost already). On the first day we decdied to go to Saigon water park. After about a 40 minute motorbike hellraising, im gonna die any second now ride, we arrived at the entrance only to find the park was no longer there!!! It was completey flatened and is being rebuilt. 2 years they told us to wait but i didnt have that much time i said. So back home a little disappointed. We made up for it though back in the city centre where there are bars and clubs galore...full every night! We met up with
2 other irish lads and an aussie and headed to Sheridans irish bar in saigon where the tranditional music and craic was great.
Next day we did manage to find a water park called Dan Sem. Really good lides here.
I also met 3 sisters working on the tourist streets every day there and got to know them a bit. They came from hanoi for work and walked around the streets selling bits and bobs like clippers, braclets, fake wallets etc. They worked very hard for very little do one day i decided to give them a hand and put on their hat and carry the box around and see if i could make any money out of it. i spent 30mins working and earned a big fat zero nothing. But it was good craic and everyone had a good auld laugh at me.
We also visited the war museum where there were photos and artifacts from the American war. It truely was a horrific and sad place. At one stage i felt quite queezy and thought i was gonna get sick. The photos were very graphic and the stories of slaughter by our "freedom fighting, brightest beacon for
oil...eeer i mean peace" friends across the atlantic on village people were even worse!!! One village was slaughtered by 10 american SEAL forces. They were all children,women and old people, there were no men. They werent shot but had their throats slit and some 8 year old kids were even gutted intead by knife and bayonet. The leader of this team (whos name i forget) then went on to become a senator in washington. He only admitted to his crime in 2001. Truely sick! Other villages just got wiped off the map buy carpet bombings and nepam.
Many of the people are still suffering from the war today. Many have been born extremely deformed after those clever yanks sprayed the country side with agent orange to kill all vegatation coz they were getting the run around from vietnamese. The people were also tortured horribley and chained to walls. 3 million died in the war and 2 million died in world war 2 when Japan invaded. The 20th century was a cruel time for such a wonderful people. The photos and stories were just very sad indeed and shed light and the other side of the story which unfortunatly we never
hear about because of the propoganda and lies we get on our screens from america.
Having said all that. The people in Vietnam have worked hard trying to rebuild after the carnage. Ho Chi Minh (saigon) is just a great city where you can easily get stuck and plenty of ex pats have. Its huge, noisey, 4 million motor bikes(but not one traffic jam was there coz everyone is on motorbikes, i think we could learn from this back home!!!), 20 deaths on the roads every day(alot alcohol related), but the spirit and character can charm you easily and everyone loved the city. You gotta visit this city!
I also parted ways with Will as he wants to get to singapore quickly to meet a girl he met in Ha long bay. Hope it goes well for you mate and thanks for the great craic we had! See ya soon!
Cu Chi Tunnels
These tunnels were built by the Viet Cong during the American war. They stretched from Cambodia to 5km outside saigon. 200km of tunnels!!! They were just amazing and the people who stayed in them for weeks on end even more amazing! They were so tiny in
size about 60 or70cm high and even much smaller in places so only vietnamese and not americans could go down them. It was very hard to breath down them and the air was dead. The heat was intollerable and it was pitch dark. i can not image the fear anyone would have having to go down these tunnels in search of someone who knew the tunnels like the back of his hand. They were built so cleverly too. The airholes for the tunnels were built into termite mounds so they were never found by the enemy. When the americans turned to the trusty dog to sniff them out the put chilly poweder around the holes or american clothing in the holes so the dog could not smell them. For cooking underground they created a system so the smoke would not rise out of the tunnels and give their location away. The tunnells were just a massive network and went 3 to 4 levels deep because the bombs from B52s blew 5 meter deep craters. They viet cong could just not be caught here and hence the decision to use agent orange to kill all life and then the whole area
was bombed......so much that there was 70 pieces of bomb srapnel per square meter(!!!!) found here after the war. You could have nothing but respect for people who were mostly farmers both men and women that built, lived and fought here.
Then there were the traps they set in the jungle. I tell you falling into these would be the last thing you would do! They ranged from the classic spears coming out of the ground in a deep hole to spikes on a spinning wheel, that when you fell into, the spikes would run the whole way up your body puncturing it. There was also a shooting range there with M16s AK47s shootguns and hand guns. At one stage when there were about 20 people shooting it caused a truely defening horrible noise which, when you looked around you in the thick jungle, you could try and imagine the scenes that went on 35 years before. Although you could never image the true horror of it all unless you were there it was a surreal experience.
The Mekong Delta
On my last day i visited the mekong delta for a relaxing boat trip through the river reeds. There
were plenty of touristy photo opportunies with bee hives and pythons too. The Mekong truely is the life supply to millions of people in many countries. From fishing to rice growing its improtance really is immeasurable. The mekong is second only to the amazon with fish species and is home to the legendary 3 meter long cat fish, which i did not see unfortunately.
Farewell Vietnam
I have to say this is my favourite country. I had a truely wonderful time. The combination of the friendly people, absolutely stunning women ,Ho Chi Minh, Ha Long Bay and of course beautiful Sapa wins it for me. Alot of people have different opinions and alot of people didnt like it but it all comes down to personal experience and i loved it. I will definately be back here sooner rather than later. You MUST come here!!!
Cambodia awaits.......
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the pool
roll on the pool another 3-0 yesterday bring on barca. i hope you are converting all those vietnamese to the through football team chris.fairwell vietnam best so far.