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Published: June 21st 2009
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We found a really good bus operator from Con Tho called Phuong Trang Group, which offer a great comfortable journey for only $6 for a 4 hour bus trip. Once in the second capital of Vietnam we stopped at a large bus station not quite sure where to go or what to do...(as always!) but we were ushered to a small mini-bus, which would take us to the centre of the city for free (nice one!). We got dropped off by a very busy chaotic street, similiar to Kho San Road in Bangkok and started our trek to find some cheap accomodation. After checking maybe 2-3 rooms we where very hot and bothered and settled at a guesthouse called Kim's for $9 a night, with air-con. The room was small but was clean and the staff were friendly. We noticed instantly that there were alot of Westerners walking around (which we hadnt seen for a while) and the street was cramed with little bars and restaurants. So we had a stroll around found somewhere to get a bite to eat.
We walked past Brewers Coffee Shop and a man offered us a flyer, which was for a free cinema screen
upstairs. It was showing the recent Disney film "Up", so we thought what the hell and went and had a look. For free this cinema was great! It had sofa seats and had a fairly big screen, you only had to order a drink to stay..so got a cherry coke and a beer! After the film we thought we'd try the night life of HCMC. We noticed alot of Go Go bars, with some seedy looking joints, but we found a real small road side bar and had a few bevys! The Smirnoff Vodka here is expensive, maybe 40/50VND. But the Vietnamese vodka was only 16VND....smelt disgusting, but was alright!
The following day we jumped on a cyclo and were taken to the War Museum. We really wanted to get a clear picture of what the History of War was about Vietnam, but the Museum was quite confusing and sometimes contradicting. However, had some tanks and planes to see and lots of horrific pictures of what war can bring onto a country.
After the museum we were taken back through the mental streets, full of mopeds, to our road. We got a little lunch from one of the
ladies side carts, it was rice cakes with omlette ...was delicious!
With a couple of hours to kill before dinner time we decided to walk through the park in the middle of the city. This is were all the vietnamese come to play badminton, shuttlecock or just for a jog. So we thought we'd buy a shuttlecock and give it a go! It is a very popular game in Asia and basically it is a large shuttlecock that you hit to each other by foot or your hand. So we go back to the park with this shuttlecock, thinking were going to look really silly with no westerners and just us playing, but as soon as we got started a vietnamese asked if he could join..we said sure! After maybe 10 minutes, we had a circle of 15 vietnamese all playing with us! Was so much fun! We couldnt believe that this is how they play out here and you just join in the circle, once you've had enough you can just leave and join another circle. Was a really fun experience!
For dinner that evening we went to a restaurant which we found the vietnamese vokda for
only 7VND! So we had a nice cheap meal and headed for town for some drinks. We walked down the road, and some vietnamese guy was calling at us to join him for a drink, so we did! We soon found out this place only served the cheapest beer yet! Was 1 litre of beer for 11VND, which is about 30p!!! So we ended up getting a little typsy and drinking with these vietnamese guys all night, kindly one explained to us the truths about their war history, which was very nice of him. Also i made a vietnamese facebook buddy!! lol
The next day we had pre-arranged our tour to the Cu Chi tunnels which cost $5 to get there and then 80VND to enter ($4). so at 08.00am we got picked up and were on our way. We had a large group of maybe 20 people and a really good guide who explained to us all about the tunnels that the vietnamese had dug whilst the americans where trying to find them in the war. As you can see from the photos, they are very very small! and have actually been widen so westerners can fit in
them. You had to go down a flight of stairs into a bunker and then crawl on your hands and knees in a pitch black tunnel which was 3 metres under ground. These tunnels are actually 3 levels deep, but the tour guide told us we could not go to the second level (6 metres deep) as when they tried previously a guy passed out due to the lack of oxygen. I was feeling a little (or shall i say alot!) uncomfortable about going through these tunnels, so waited until last and got the courage to go through, cause once you go down...you cant go back! It was a hot and an exilrating experience!
In the evening we went to a local market and had some Italian for dinner. We had our bus journey booked for 08.00am the next day to head for our next destination in vietnam...Mui Ne.
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