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Published: August 20th 2010
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On the way to the Cu Chi tunnels I'm sitting next to a guy from Czech Republic, who's studying in Taiwan and here for a holiday, and we spend the journey nattering away. We take a break at a workshop where paintings and other items are made using egg shells. There are some stunning items in the gallery ...
At the Cu Chi tunnels, I am horrified by the booby traps but the information about the tunnels is interesting and like the musuem, really makes you think about Vietnam's history. Soon, it’s time to crawl through the tunnels which is quite an experience: you have to go crawl on your hands and knees and it's claustrophobic and very hot!! My knees are being scratched and I end up swapping between a conventional crawl and a ‘bear crawl’. At one point you can turn left to leave the tunnel early but I carry on. I manage to negotiate a dark scary patch where the lights disappear and just about avoid a large squashed centipede (unlike a previous tunnel crawler). Eventually, I reach a drop which is the equivalent of my height. As I make my way down, hanging from the top,
my camera drops and the battery falls out but I manage to retrieve it and luckily, one of the great joys of my life is still working okay. Eventually I leave the tunnel, drenched in sweat. My elbow is bleeding and knees are scratched but hey, it’s part of the experience. We all wash and then go to watch a film about the tunnels. The film expresses a lot of sentiments about the anti-American resistance so there is an inadvertent burst of laughter from the audience when the film finishes and the logo announces that it is sponsored by California Eletronics.
Soon we are on the bus back to Ho Chi Minh. I am starving and make my way to the indian restaurant (the pricey but great one, it’s my last day in Ho Chi Minh so I'm treating myself). One of the waiters enquires after Rik and I explain that he’s returned to England. We spend some time chatting and then I leave to visit the cathedral. There is a prayer service going on in the cathedral and hymns are being sung (in Vietnamese). I am about to leave when a couple starts singing a duet. Their voices
are amazing and I stay and listen until they finish. After that I go for a quick walk through the park but no lingering as I need to get ready and pack for my sleeper bus to Nha Trang.
The sleeper bus is pretty is a new one and impressive, with around 36 bunks. It is very clean and when I sniff the blanket it literally smells of roses. I choose a bunk and settle down but the guy on the bus checks a list and comes to me to say that I am booked on a bunk at the back. I go to the back and the bunks are higher so I cannot sit up. It eventally hits me that the back bunks are all next to each other so if anyone else is booked at the back, we will be sleeping right next to each other. I'm just praying I don’t end up with some amorous guy next to me. However, everyone boards, the bus sets off and I get ready to enjoy having the whole of the back section to myself. Suddenly, the bus stops, a couple of guys get on and guess what: they're both
directed to the back bunks. We're not happy about the arrangement but we have no other choice as the rest of the bunks are full, so we put it down to the experience. Luckily, we get on really well and it’s not long before we’ve received a complaint about the amount of noise we are making! It's hard for us to sleep as we the bunks in the back are claustrophobic and it's really hot so we just chat (although we do try to keep the noise down). I have to use the loo at one point which is a chore and a half as it's at the back of the bus and gets its fair share of bumps. When we stop for a break at around 1 am, I brave the smelly loos twice (the downside of night buses is that the decent loo stops are never open) to make sure I don’t have to use the loo on the bus again.
And then it's back on the bus to try and get some sleep ...
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