Day 111: back in HCMC

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Well we are back in Ho Chi Minh City, but just for one day. Tomorrow we fly to Bangkok, and then take an overnight train to the border of Laos.

Before we came here, we spent a few more relaxed days in Nha Trang after new years. Mostly just went to the beach and ate, but we also rented a motorbike and checked out a few more local attractions. There is a hot springs / mud bath that was actually pretty fun, and we also went to an oceanographic museum / aquarium that was a great bang for the buck.

Last night we got on an overnight bus from Nha Trang to HCMC. I have yet to sleep well on overnight buses - we much prefer trains. We thought this one would be better because the seats lean back aaalmost flat, but it was still pretty bad. Especially the part where they stop every 3 hours and turn on all the lights.

So we arrived at 7:00 am this morning in HCMC feeling pretty tired and a bit grumpy, but we decided to try and rally. We checked into the first hotel that we looked at, and headed to the closest tourism place to ask about the Cu Chi tunnels trip. The Cu Chi tunnels were used by the vietkong to hide and ambush the Americans during the war. We had kinda wanted to do it last time we were in HCMC but we were too busy sliding down waterslides. So we decided to go for it today. When we got to the tourism booth we found out that we had 15 minutes to eat breakfast to make it on the tour. We grabbed some coffee, bread and cheese, and made it just in time.

After all was said and done, the tour pretty much sucked. I guess we've been pretty lucky so far, so maybe it was about time that we had a bad tour. Our group was waay too big, so there was never enough room for anybody to see anything, our guide was annoying, and there was probably only 20 minutes of interesting stuff spread out over SEVEN HOURS. Booh. The only fun part for me was going through the one authentic tunnel that they let the tourists climb in. Cramped, totally dark, and you have to feel your way through maybe 50 feet of turns to the other side. But I would not recommend the trip to anyone unless you were in a small group and only stay at the tunnels for 2 hours max.

We salvaged our day with an awesome vietnamese BBQ meal, and then a trip to the night market. Here's a few pictures from the last few days in Nha Trang, and our few good moments at the Cu Chi tunnels:

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Comments

[Matt Potterton]

Should recruit a buncha large people
Get a tour filled with large NFL linemen to take the tunnel tour, see if the guide tries to shove them into that entrance hole