Vietnam - Saigon

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Having left Cambodia behind when moved to Vietnam (very an interesting border cross on foot which seemed very unnecessarily difficult and full of officials trying to find ways to charge you a few extra dollars) and into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon to most).

Vietnam although still very visibly feeling the effects of war, particularly Agent Orange and other chemical weapons is much much greener and with better infrastructure than Cambodia having not had the land destroyed and the culling of population. Its a very nice country, I really like this city as its very busy (5 million people and 4 million motorbikes!) but not too polluted, loads of greenery everything is central and loads of interesting buildings, there’s really interesting sights and smells from street sellers but people don’t hassle you to buy like they did in Cambodia or Bangkok. Plus you can buy 2 litres of beer for 20p. Syaing that the money is very suilly over here, its 32,00 dog to a pund so when you go to the cash point you end up taking out a million!

First night we had a walk around got our bearings and ended up meeting and spending most the night drinking with a few nice people, a nice mix of locals and travelers. The next we had a full day with an early start, as I said everything’s central so with a map and a bit of good luck we negotiated our way around the war museum, reunification palace, Notre Dam cathedral and the night markets before heading back into the main backpacker area for the evening.

The war museum is something special although like the Killing fields in Phnom Penn is very moving and very disturbing, the atrocities that were carried out by the Americans and Southern Vietnamese are hard to describe and it's amazing what they got away with in a truly pointless war. It makes you think a lot about how they are still doing it now in Iraq and Guantanmo bay.

At the reunification palace there are more interesting sites, although an old and grand palace stood there it was destroyed and rebuilt but in a different modern style. Its very 60/70s reminded me a little of the library building at Uni, very retro. It’s interesting as it’s strange to see such grand buildings built as recently as building has become much more efficient. The Cathedral was also interesting as was the walk through the nighttime streets of Ho Chi Minh. The night market was brilliant very busy, vibrant, lots of food, clothes watches bags, anything you want, although the fake united shirt I was looking for seemed a bit too real so waiting to find something better. I managed to get a whole new outfit of 3/4 trousers and t shirt for under a fiver and great quality. We also ate at the market which was an interesting mix of noodles and most meats you can imagine including whole eels!

The next day we went a bit out of the city to the Tunnels used by the Viet Cong, this was a bit more laid back than the war museum and just very interesting in the ingenuity of the people and their determination to win the war. We went through the enlarged underground tunnel for 40ms, this was very scary and very very narrow you can barely crouch, its lit too. The actual tunnels are so small and pitch black the people used to crawl like snakes and spend days down there. The weapons and traps they made from bomb shells dropped on them was also fasinating. Babs and I also had a go at the shooting range, this was interesting although having seen all the horrors of war the last two days not as much fun as I imagined although still an experience.

Next we traelled to Hoi An via a 17 hr train journey, we werent able to get a sleeping carriage to ourselves due to new year but hte journey wasnt as painful as i thought and got some sleep until 6 am wherer like the buses suddenly they started pumping out stupidly loud karaoke.

Sorry for lack of photos, internet is slow here so will update it later when I add my next blog

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Photos

War museum
Me and Laura next to a helicopter, there were loads of tanks, guns etc everywhere

Tiger cages
A replica of the jails used by the south Vietnamse, some of thepicturesof this wasvery disturbing

Me firing a gun
Pretty self explanatory

Comments

[Babs mum]

onward and upward
Hi James - glad you and Babs are still working the pool tables! assume laura is collecting the money! sounds great cheap booze, great weather beautiful company what more could you ask!