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Published: October 20th 2008
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Xin Chao from Viet Nam and welcome to the first of a 2 part special covering Viet Nam and Cambodia.
We landed in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and had a couple of hours to wait for Tina's father, Brian, to arrive. He joined us for Viet Nam and Cambodia and Tina was really pleased to see him as he'd brought supplies of chocolate from the UK!!
The centre of HCMC is still referred to as Sai Gon and our hotel was right in the heart of the downtown area of District 1. Sai Gon is a wild place throbbing with people and countless motor scooters. Walking down the streets is what I'd imagine living in a bee-hive would be like, with a sea of humanity swarming around you all going about their daily business, be it shining shoes or selling everything from fresh Dragon-fruit to fake designer sun-glasses.
There are no gaps in the traffic so you cross the roads by walking out and letting the traffic flow around you, which can be a bit unnerving at first. The scooters carry anything up to four people at any one time and it's not unusual to see dead
Cu chi coo
Bear in the hole cows, pigs or up to 40 live ducks strapped behind the driver.
Night times were even more frenetic with an abundance of restaurants, bars and clubs offering all kinds of distractions as well as great food and cheap drinks and probably a lot more besides.
It is hard to visit Viet Nam, especially Sai Gon, and avoid reference to the wars which have been fought against foreign occupation for most of the 20th Century. Since the 1930's, Ho Chi Minh lead the resistance, initially against the French, then the Japanese, then the French again, and finally and most famously of all, against the Americans during the 1960's and 70's. We visited various sites connected with these struggles for independence.
Our first trip was to the Cu Chi tunnels about 35K north west of HCMC. The Cu Chi tunnels are part of a 2,600 Km chain that the Viet Cong dug around and underneath the US bases to evade detection. These tunnels contained, living quarters, briefing rooms, kitchens and even hospitals and enabled the VC to survive the massive American carpet-bombing campaigns virtually unharmed. We went down some of the tunnels which had been especially widened to accommodate
AK47
"BANG" the larger western frame and see some of the traps that were used to discourage the American 'Tunnel Rats' from entering. Quite gruesome and very claustrophobic crawling along in the pitch black. We also fired some live rounds from an AK47 rifle which was unbelievably loud and we were unable to work out how anyone could have fought a battle with all that noise going on.
We also visited the Reunification Palace, various temples and markets and the War Remnants museum. As well as containing an impressive array of military hardware such as helicopters, tanks and planes the museum also houses a very poignant collection of photographs detailing the suffering of the Viet Namese people. Some of the most disturbing pictures were those covering the effects of Agent Orange ( A defoliant and a form of mustard gas dropped by the Americans). All in all a very sobering experience.
And then, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Walking out of the museum we bumped into Jeremy Clarkson, Richard 'Hamster" Hammond , James May and the 'Top Gear' (very popular BBC UK Motoring Programme) film crew who were filming a piece for the next series - Which was nice.
Top Gear ?
Where did you get that T-Shirt Jeremy ? We had a quick chat and a few photographs and then Jeremy asked if he could borrow Daren's spare Viet Nam T-shirt as the high humidity was causing sweat patches on his own T-shirt to show up on film.
We then headed out on a 2 day boat trip up the Mekong Delta. This trip afforded us great views of every day life on the waterways which have remained unchanged for 100's of years and are the centre of Viet Nam's food production. We visited a floating market at Can Tho, a rice warehouse, a Coconut Candy factory and a bee Farm where we were able to drink Snake Wine. This turned out to be a spirit similar to Schnapps but with the bottle containing Ginseng roots and a dead cobra for extra flavour.
On our return to the Sai Gon we caught the 'Reunification Express Train' to Ha Noi the nation's capital in the north. This meant a 32 hour journey albeit in our own first class 4 berth compartment. We were worried that the journey would drag but with some outstanding scenery and plenty of passengers keen to practice their English on us, the time flew
by. Certainly some of the scenery we saw has made us keen to re-visit Viet Nam.
Ha Noi on first impressions was a lot quieter than Sai Gon. Built around several lakes it retains a lot of its French Colonial influences with wide, tree-lined boulevards, classical architecture and French inspired cuisine. But behind this elegant facade there was another vibrant and bustling side to the city.
We spent a few pleasant days relaxing and exploring the city and its cacophonous markets. Some of the sights we saw here would make your hair stand on end. We also visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, the Water Puppet theatre, several Pagodas and the remains of a B52 bomber, half submerged in a lake in the middle of an avenue of elegant colonial houses.
So, all in all we had a great time in Viet Nam. It has a bit of a reputation for street crime but we always felt safe and the locals were very friendly and courteous. it's certainly somewhere we'd recommend to others and somewhere we'd hope to visit again some day
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