Cheap Sleep and Good Eats

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Ho Chi Minh City ( also better known as Saigon ) is situated on the banks of the Saigon River. With the surrounding towns, the city swells with more than 9 million people making it the largest metropolitan in Vietnam. Although not as beautiful and not as clean as Hanoi, Saigon appears to have alot to offer its tourist. Between river cruises and tours of tunnels left from the Vietnam war you can fill your day with not only sights but an overload of information about Vietnam.

We were able to catch a cheap flight for 97 dollars from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city with Vietnam Airlines in the morning. By catching the plane we were able to knock 36 hours of train off of our trip which we obviously didn't mind at all. Again finding a hostel (for only $5 dollars each) was easy and we were able to drop our bags and explore the city in hopes of finding a good cafe near by. Vietnam surprsingly has great places to eat everywhere. Almost everywhere you go, you will find menus that have the widest variety of food and for a great price. After grabbing a much needed supper and getting some much needed sleep we were ready for our tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels. It was great having the chance to see the tunnels and learn so much about a war I've always been interested in. Its strange to watch the Vietnam movies we've all come to love and then come to Vietnam and see the lush trees and the tunnels for myself. I couldn't imagine coming over here at the age of 19 and fighting in the war. But once again I figuered I should at least try to get a feel of what it would may be like. So not only did we climb through the smallest tunnels (which apperantly go 8-9 meters deep into the ground and cover almost 250kms), but also had the chance to fire M16's (for a generous fee of course). Every shot fired was like a bullet directly to my ear drum. Being the smart lads that we are, we captured the moments of Britt and I firing a M16 and crossing the line from semi deaf to full on Mr. Hollands Opus deaf on Britt's camera.

We learned alot, had alot of fun and definetly need to do our homework on the Vietnam war. But for now we'll just try and get the facts straight about Canada when asked by other foriegners. Quick, whats the population of Canada? ------------ Thats what I thought. So we're not the only ones!


P.s. The answer is 32,900,000

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Photos

Tougher than a tank
Though Britt appears tougher than a tank she's actually pretty nice. I swear.... (an old American tank destroyed in the war)

Tunnel Exit
Britt getting out of the "not so comfortable" tunnels.

Comments

[Alex Roy]

Love the pics dude. You write so well. Miss you alot.