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Published: November 13th 2006
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We booked a direct bus from Phnom Penh all the way to Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon as it used to be called. After some absolutely monumental faffing at the border that turned a simple passport stamping into a two hour ordeal we were in Vietnam and on our way to Saigon. We were dropped in the middle of backpacker central and immediately set upon by a wall of touts, although we are pretty used to it by now and can hold a decent conversation between ourselves ignoring the talking coming from all sides, which as any of you who've been in this part of the world know is an ability you quickly learn, along with the sidestepping and polite 'no thanks' repeatedly to all manner of fruit sellers, moto drivers, hotel touts, fake book sellers and the dreaded 'postcard kids'. About six hotels later (most of them are pretty rough round there) we found a beautiful windowless, souless box that satisfied.
Only planning on two nights we quickly booked a trip and left early the next morning for the Cu Chi tunnels about 50kms from Saigon. These are an amazing network of tunnels, around 250kms long, dug by
the Viet Cong during the French war and more extensively during the more recent American war. After a short video which can only be described as communist propaganda, criticising the Americans at every opportunity we went over to the tunnels. The tunnels are set in the middle of some woods that at one time would have been thick jungle before the Americans obliterated it with Agent Orange and carpet bombing by B52s. The tunnels are tiny, measuring at their biggest 80cms by 120cms and set at three levels 3m to 10m below ground. At one point we got to experience what it was like as we crawled only 90m through the tunnels, although this was more than enough. It was very hot, humid, dark, cramped and a pretty nasty place to be. We also saw a collection of horrible traps which the Viet Cong laid throughout the jungle which spiked and blew up the enemy, all very clever in their design but nasty to imagine. Throughout the tour you can hear the sound of heavy gunfire which all adds to the illusion but isn't a recording, you can actually fire one for the small sum of $1.5 each bullet. The
choices are an AK47, M16 or the huge M60 machine gun. I let off a few rounds from an M16 which was awesome fun, so loud though.
We also went to a couple of famous museums, the War Remnants museums with old American hardware as well as disturbing images of the affects on civilians of war and incredible photographs of the war by wartime photographers, many of whom died. Again it was very one sided but powerfull stuff. We also went to Reunification Palace as it is now called from where the very famous pictures of the North Vietnamese tanks rolling over the perimeter gates as they took Saigon where taken.
From Saigon we got on one of their famous open tour buses, incredibly cheap but they get commision from dropping you at certain hotels. Our first stop was Mui Ne, a small (but rapidly growing) beach resort where the hotel they encouraged us to stay at was actually pretty nice. While there we laid around on the beach as you'd expect and visited some local sanddunes for some sand sliding (which was predictably well tame compared to the Aussie version) and saw a red sandstone canyon, not
the most exciting afternoon but a good distraction. Oh yeah, and one thing about Mui Ne is that it is the capital of fish paste so on the breeze you frequently get a big whiff of it, sort of like sewage mixed with rotted fish (which it essentially is). Nice.
Nha Trang was the next stop, supposed party capital of Vietnam. It's pretty cool there with loads of bars and stuff, but a but too much like Surfer's Paradise or Blackpool (except with less dirty brown sea water and fewer grannies) for my liking. Anyway we went on the essential boat tour of the bay and surrounding islands which turned out to be a bit of a party boat, much to the suprise of a few of the older passengers. So there was some good food, enforced dancing and a floating bar out in the sea which was quite cool apart from the rank cocktail we had to drink.
We caught the night bus out of Nha Trang overnighting up to Hoi An which is famous for it's tailoring, oh yeah and something about some incredible colonial architecture and other impressive museums. So as soon as we where
Reunification Palace, Saigon
These were the gates famously smashed down by North Vietnamese tanks in 1975 here we set about seeing what was on offer, by that I mean looking around the hundred or so tailors. They are all essentaily the same and it's difficult to pick one from the other so you kind of have to go on gut feeling and pick one that seems good. I'd always intended to buy a suit here (well how couldn't you when a fully tailored suit made within 24 hours, normally less starting from as little as $30!) and maybe a pair of shoes. Well now after two days I've already bought a pair of stitched leather shoes, a suit, a winter facket, three shirts and various other things all tailor made and it's all cost less than $150! It'd be rude not to.
We've just arrived in Hue, famous for it's ancient royal tombs and citadel, all of which was bombed heavily by the Americans.
PS: And if you'd been wondering about the title: Tom means 'Big' in Cambodian and here in Vietnamese it appears to mean 'Shrimp', all the kids find it pretty hilarious when they ask my name! "Mr Big, Mr Big" I can still hear them chanting after me as I walk
away......
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