BACK TO THE CITY

---

We travelled overnight by train to Ho Chi Minh and slept rather well. We were told by the agent that we booked the tickets with we would arrrive at 7am as it turned out we arrived at 5.30am. We had arranged a pick up from our hotel so we decided to sit and wait at the station cafe and were joined by a lady from Amsterdam who was travelling on her own. She was waiting for it to get light before she took a bike taxi into the city to find a hotel. She left us at around 6.45am and we waited for our pick up that still hadnt arrived at 7.20am so we jumped our own taxi and gave them the hotel address. We arrived at the hotel to no-one who could speak english which we were surprised at as the e-mail replies we had received had been in very good english. Anyway they sorted our room out and by the time we came down the lady that owned it was there. She helped us book a trip for the next day as our time was limited here and we wanted to see the Cu Chi tunnels on the ourskirts of the city. So with that arranged we set off to find some breakfast.

Ho Chi Minh is a very very busy place, there are motorbikes travelling in every direction and the roads are madness!! We found a cafe and was approached by a local man offering a cyclo tour of the city. Basically like we had in Hanoi he has a seat on the front of the bike and he pedals you round. We agreed on a price and itinary and set off. We had a bike each this time as in comparison to the locals we are quite heavy!!! The guy taking Tim stopped in the first few minutes and gestured to another guy - he obviously wasnt going to make it peddling Tim round for 4 hours!!!!!

Our first stop was the war museum. I didnt know much about the vietnam / American war before this trip. Tim filled me in with what he knew but the museum was one hell of an eye opener. In brief and as best I could understand....The war began between Vietnam and France who were ruling here at the time there was an uprising against this and America stepped in to support the French. However pretty soon the Americans took over and the French are hardly mentioned in the museum in terms of fighting and over time it seemed to become a vendetta for the American Army to win against the Vietnamese at any cost. Quite some time into the conflict neither side were winning there were mass losses for each army. The Viet Kong were not strong unless they were on the ground, they did not have the fire power or air transport that the americans had and yet they were holding their own. It is estimated that America used 15 million tonnes of amunition (as much as used in world war two). The americans decided the best course of action was to use Napalm bombs. These bombs are basically bombs of burning fire distributed from planes. They used these to their advantage in terms of burning down the jungle (no where to hide) and mass killing anything in sight including local civilians, animals etc... As if that wasnt enough they also used a chemical substance called Agent Orange this killed crops and through using it they hoped to starve the Vietnamese into surrender or death which brings the former. Whether they realised the after effects for the future of the countries people it did not say but those who survived contact with agent orange and went on to start families suffered multiple miscarriages, horrific birth defects, still births, child blindness and speechlessness. The adults themselves suffered badly with skin disorders, concentration problems and headaches never really knowing that they were caused by until much later on. The pictures in the museum are very heart rendering of these children and they also have bottled foetus' that show twins joined at the hips with only one set of legs, another with a extremely oversized head it was really bad. Over 3 million people have been affected by the Agent Orange use the museum reports. Then you get onto the ground pictures where the local woman and children are piled high on top of each other shot in the back when trying to flee by the american army. The mass death of Vietnamese civilians was huge and it is very well documented even though I cant recall the exact dates and body counts. Believing that the Viet Kong were remaining strong because they were escaping for cover in neighbouring (innocent) Cambodia they decided the best course of action was to bomb there too and did so on numerous occasions. Causing death and carnage there too. The museum then goes on to tell you about the capture of the soldiers and how they were treated which again is pretty horrific. They were fed on stale water and mouldy fish or bread. During the summer the cells would have 15 people in them which was major overcrowding in unbearable heat and no sanitary conditions. In the winter and much colder conditions the cells would house one person. Bodies found at the prison sites showed evidence of 6" nails having been hammered through the skulls or hands and horrible details of torture.

The war raged from 1965-1975. In 1975 a treaty was written and agreed - America pulled out of Vietnam. Not victors and certainly not unscathed. I remember walking round and thinking to myself that I was so glad not to be there as an American, the evidence was extrememly damning of their country. You could argue though maybe a little one sided.

We were both very quiet and thoughtful after the museum it does hit you hard. So we pulled ourselves together and our guides took us to the next few stops which included a local temple, the riverside and a copy of Natre Dame. The temple was okay but we have seen so many now, the river was filthy and is was getting damn hot so we didnt stay too long there and Natre Damn was quaint but didnt really rock our boats. All very interesting though! Finally we stopped off at the local market and managed to purchase some new linen trousers and T-shirts so we could cull the backpacks again. All very reasonably priced if hectic and crazy bargaining.

The guys then returned us to where we had set off and we headed back to our hotel. My sunburn was still playing me up and with the excessive heat was blistering which was worrying so I had a long very cold shower and then we had to sort out some further research for the next leg of the trip. After extensively looking into Thailand and realising that it was high season, getting expensive and running out of accomodation in the areas we wanted we decided to extend our Vietnamese visa which was due to run out Jan 20th and travel to an Island called Phu Quoc off the Vietnamese south west mainland. Our budget is going really well but we were enjoying Vietnam and it is very cheap. We spent the rest of that evening sorting out with a travel agent. We then for for dinner in the market restaurants and found the most divine BBQ prawns and pork it was lovely right outisde the main market.

The next day was a visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels, these are an underground network of tunnels that the army used in battles to hide from their enemy. We were picked up on time and set off, it was hell trying to get out of the city in the traffic. Finally we seemed to hit an open road after 2 hours of traffic jams and would you believe they pull into a factory shop. No-one on the bus wanted to be there, nobody was expecting to go and even worse it was staffed by disabled adults and children so that really did pull at the conscience. We were really angry though it is so bad when the tour operaters do this and very unfair as we hadnt asked for it. We showed willing begrudgingly and the work is very good but I dont think anyone bought anything. 45 minutes later we were back on the road. We got to the tunnels and after an age waiting for the whole of our group to get tickets (we now really do hate organised tours) we were ushered off to watch a film of the place. It was very old and the english translation was a little strange. It very proudly showed a young Vietnamese girl on the front line brandishing a gun and 'fighting for her county' she cant have been more than 13 or so although they look damn young here well into there 20's. This made me look at the museum slightly differently it reported so many young female deaths and never once said they were also fighting on the front line. How do you know who is innocent and enemy in those circumstances???

Then we went off to see the actual tunnels and these are still the real network used during the war. They were originally started during the french war and extended on mass during the american war. They were built in 3 tiers, the first being the domestic areas including a rest room, meeting room, hospital room and kitchen. The second tier was for sleeping and the third was provided for an escape route to the river, water wells which came right through all the tiers and traps in case the enemy infiltrated them. They were very well thought out and designed including air vents all the way through and a vent for cooking in the kitchen which would only be done at dawn so that the steam mixed in with the morning mist. The tunnels are extrememly small and the entries to them just small wooden lids that were hidden by grass and bracken. The one Tim got down has been widened to allow visitors to experience them. Our tour guide was a very young local girl who quite honestly was useless. She tried to couple our group with the group in front but there leader kept telling our group we couldnt join in as we were not in his group. In the end Tim and a mexican girl got quite shirty with our guide and eventually she organised another guide for us as she certainly wasnt willing to show us the trap doors etc herself.

The guide arrived and he was really good fun we had a well explained tour round not only the tunnel entries but a real bomb crater, original traps which were scary as hell, a left over american tank more tunnel sections and then onto what I was really looking forward to - the chance to fire a gun. We had heard about this from Kat in Nha Trang and Tim and I both opted for the AK47. You could buy the bullets in 5's so we had 5 each. We took them down to the shooting range and I gave mine to the guy there with the AK47 which looked quite menancing if rather old. He loaded them for me and told me to aim and fire (i'm quite nervous at this point) so i aimed and fired and bugger all happened. The guy realised it hadnt loaded properly and reloaded for me. This time it did fire and the kickback into my shoulder was immense it's like a really really hard punch, my aim was crap as the gun pulled up and my next 4 werent much better although I did skim above the tiger target (dont think I was anywhere near it in reality). Then it was Tim's turn who had no problems with it sticking and before we knew it it was over. Absolute buzz though we both really enjoyed it even though I realised I was shaking as we came out of the range!!!!!!!

We left Ho Chi Minh on the 17th Jan minus a passport - little weird but it was with the embassy getting our extention sorted. We would have to return here after our stay on the island to collect them. In there place we were given a photocopy of our passport and current visa the tour guide got us a really good deal for the hotel on the island and had cleared us not having our passports which was great. Off we go again to pastures new...........

---

Photos

American helicopter
Outside the war museum

Bomb from the war
Can you believe how big they were!!!

The street vendor from heaven
This man knows how to BBQ !!!!

The Cu Chi Tunnels
Tim getting into one of the tunnel openings

Ground trap
OUCH !

Rambo
Tim with his AK47 !!

Inside the tunnels
Rather hot!!!