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Published: June 22nd 2011
On our first night in Ho Chi Minh City, our whole group went out for a meal to say bye to the five people who are heading home (they were only with us for the Cambodia part of the tour). Getting to the restaurant was a total mission because crossing the road in Vietnam, particularly this city is notoriously difficult. They don’t really have rules, or crossings. The technique is supposed to be that you walk slowly, looking both ways, never stop, never slow down, never speed up and the motorbike drivers just sort of dodge you. This is a city of 7million motorbikes by the way so yes, crossing the road is not fun!
We all went to the Cu Chi Tunnels on Monday morning to learn about the Vietnam war. Basically, communists in North Vietnam wanted to enforce communism in south Vietnam. The south said no, war broke out, America came to help the south but lost because the north were experts in guerrilla warfare. The south were just called the south Vietnamese army but the north are referred to as Viet Kong. They were so successful because they were impossible to identify. Our tour guide, who was
absolutely fantastic by the way, told us about a girl he was dating during the war, who was actually Viet Kong and tried to kill him one night. Our guide fought for south Vietnam but as he could speak English, he spent most of his time with the US army, as a translator. He said they fed him hamburgers and mash potato with gravy which he hated but now he sometimes craves it and goes to touristy areas in HCMC to get his fix!
So, the Cu Chi Tunnel Complex is centred around the traps they Viet Kong used and the tunnels they used to move around underground undetected. Cu Chi is an hour and a half north of HCMC so it took a while to get there. Upon arrival, we watched a short film about the war. North Vietnam won the war, so Vietnam is now communist and the US army are not looked fondly upon. This video was so funny. Phrases such as “the evil devil Americans dropped B52 bombs on our beautiful land and killed the people” were throughout. Of course, yes it’s true but the “evil devil” part was slotted in so...naturally! We had a
chance to try and fit ourselves into an original tunnel entrance in the ground which me and Terry both managed to fit in (see pics). Later, we looked at some of the booby traps used during the war, all of which resulted in the victim being impaled on something (and that something was covered in poo so the wound got infected). On a lighter note, me and Terry then got to shoot some AK47’s which was really loud but really fun! We’ve now shot a gun and can tick that off our lists. The Cu Chi tunnels were extremely narrow and most westerners couldn’t fit in them. However, at the complex, they’ve widened 100m of tunnels for westerners to crawl through. It’s still really narrow, really dark and very claustrophobic. They have exits every 20m so I only went through 20m. A few people, Terry included went through the whole tunnel and came out really dirty and dripping with sweat. It was a lovely day, 37c but easily 50c inside the tunnels!
The bus dropped us at the Vietnam War Museum on the way home so we could “go see some propaganda” as our tour guide said. The museum
was again, very anti US but worth a look around. They had some great planes and tanks outside. The museum had a whole section on Agent Orange, which is the chemical the US sprayed on the forests so get rid of the dense foliage. Unfortunately, the chemical had a huge affect on later generations who were born with terrible deformations. There was a whole gallery about it which was a bit horrible. We headed back to the hotel, crossing the crazy roads again to meet our transfer to the train station.
Sleeper trains are great because you save paying for a hotel and get to sleep through a boring journey. Everyone was very excited about the Vietnamese sleepers and after our experience in Thailand, me and Terry were excited too. It was really cool. You get cabins, like in Harry Potter, but they have beds in. We were joined by a mouse, which Terry called Mike but mice are fine and not as freaky as cockroaches so we just left Mike to it. We both slept very well and were up at 5:30am to get off the train in Nha Trang.
Nha Trang is a beach town. It’s becoming
more and more touristy, with chains like Novotel popping up but at the moment, it’s still low season for summer but Vietnamese kids are off already so Nha Trang is busy with Vietnamese families. At 5:30am, the town was bustling with exercise classes in all of the parks, outdoor gyms packed and shops fully open. We checked in to our room, which is basic but comfortable and had a little nap. When we get to a hotel now, the first thing we check in the room is, “does it have star movies”. Star Movies is a movie channel in South East Asia which is actually brilliant. Great films, all day, no adverts during films and an important part of the travelling experience.
We had a fantastic day in Nha Trang. We took a trip with a few of our group to a quiet beach, about 30minutes away and stopped en-route to pick up fresh seafood from the market for our lunch. All day we relaxed on the beach and our guides friend cooked us clams, mussels, tofu, chicken and beef on the barbeque and gave us bread, rice and noodles. We also had unlimited beer and soft drinks (which
actually wasn’t messy, we only had a couple). Terry played volleyball with a couple of the guys and some Vietnamese people which looked fun. The beach here was great and the sea was really refreshing and had really good waves. There were crabs everywhere on the beach and our tour guide just picked up a handful and chucked them on the barbeque for dinner! They were still alive and wriggling as they cooked. Terry tried one but I didn’t. I managed to stay completely white all day by slapping on factor 50 in huge doses. I usually end up with a splodge of red somewhere were I’ve missed a bit! It’s funny really because in Vietnam, a lot of the women dress in long sleeved tops and trousers with gloves, socks and a face mask. I asked a local why and he said it’s because they don’t want a tan! Being white is considered to be very attractive in Vietnam and throughout South East Asia. I am therefore totally fine with my Irish skin over here. We told the guy that at home, everyone wants to be brown which he thought was hilarious.
We had dinner at an Aussie
bar, where it was the equivalent of 50p for a double vodka and coke. Luckily everyone was a bit tired so we didn’t bother drinking and headed home to wait for our uni results to come online at 11pm. We waited....and waited....and nothing. Finally I found out through a friend that I had got a first. Yay! Terry has got a 2:1 and we’re both delighted! Today we’ve been in a great mood. I over indulged at breakfast to celebrate. I was a bit sad that the breakfast available was 80% asian style, which means that your given what we would consider an asian lunch, with soup, noodles, rice etc. I ate a lot of the remaining 20%!
Today we went for a big walk around Nha Trang. The main beach is great with white sand and blue sea. It’s about 4miles long but we walked about a mile, enjoying the scenery and ended up back at the aussie bar. Fruit shakes are a complete staple of our diet here because they’re so cheap and made from lovely fresh tropical fruit. They cost about $1 usually, so we settled down, drank a couple and walked back to the hotel.
Our hotel has a great pool, which is really long and 2 meters deep the whole length of the pool. I had some much needed exercise. Terry floated around on a giant rubber ring and made us all laugh by trying to flip himself over backwards on it. He also perfected jumping off the starting blocks directly into the center of the rubber ring. I took more care (I have makeup to protect) and had a nap. That’s pretty much where we are now, relaxing by a pool and feeling very pleased with ourselves.
Congratulations to everyone who got their results yesterday. I can’t wait to see you all at graduation! I got a first wooooooo!
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Grant
non-member comment
"a friend". Is that all I am? Pffft