Good Morning Vietnam! Saigon we are Live..

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Gooooood Morning Vietnam!!!

There's the cheesy crap outa my system. the guesthouse was the easiest to reach yet, well the dorm room was at the top of the building up ten flights of stairs! to start off the traffic in Saigon is properly hectic crossing the road risks life and limb as rules don't seem to apply as millions of moto bikes swerve and beep there way past each with between 1-4 people on, every now and again a pig or two aswell, all trying to get somewhere as fast as possible, pavements are basically extensions of the road right?

went to dinner with a french guy at the market which was alright, the ice cream was awesome tho even if it was more expensive than our meal & a beer. the next day it was off to the war reunification museum after a walk around town, the museum has tanks,planes,helicopters,bombs,bullets & huuuge artillery left by the yanks. the stories inside are pretty brutal, they are clearly all aimed to make America look as bad as possible because the Vietnamese were completely innocent of course, id get suckered in and start wandering why all Vietnamese didn't hate westerners, im sure there still a load of underlying resentment but its not immediately obvious, this would change when i went to the cu chi tunnels. the communist propaganda is cool i like walking around the place seeing huge billboards of it. also saw the revolutionary palace or something, wasn't hugely impressive really.

the backpacker area in Saigon is by far the seediest place iv had the misfortune to have been situated in the middle of i must have been approached at least 30 times in the first couple days by guys selling drugs or women. the bars are pretty cool to be fair and its good to be in a football crazy nation so can catch up on some premiership action. the Vietnamese fashion sense...well to describe one would imply one actually existed. i think Saigon is all about being in the right area at the right time to get a real feel of the place which leaves you feeling good rather than further tarnishing your opinion im sure people would love it here but for me it wasn't the place id wana hang around for too long and was probably a nasty shock after the relaxation and pleasantness of Cambodia and Laos.

Cu Chi Tunnels

early start for the tour to a famous temple and then to the cu chi tunnels, spent most of the day on a bus which is never fun. the temple is a religion which mixes 4 religions and worships all their gods, they are Buddhist believing in reincarnation but also Christians believing in an afterlife... they are all vegetarian and are only allowed to wear white when they leave their house and must pray every 6hours every day, if this hasn't made you feel, like me, that this is some crazy weird cult then you should visit and witness a ceremony and see the pink columns inside the temple its just plain strange. the tunnels were as sobering as the museum yesterday which was good because it balanced my opinion especially when we watched a film bragging about killing and torturing American soldiers and the traitors in the south who were fighting against their own people for the north in the Vietcong digging extensive tunnels around the area. we also got to see the booby traps which the Vietcong set, they are so brutal its sick. finally we got to go inside the tunnels themselves, made twice as big for fat western tourists, they were still way to small and really claustrophobic. there was also the chance to shoot an m-16 or an ak47 some guys stumped up the cash, damn they are loud! our guide was a teach who actually fought in the war against the north and there was definitely some resentment coming from him no matter how much he tried not to show it.


saw a guy in a red Ferrari, in a country where people can barely afford bikes he rolls round in a car which costs like twice the price it would even in England its just really jarring.

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