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Published: September 18th 2008
Decided that we would take a cyclo ride around the city to see the sights (this is where you sit in almost a basket on the front of a bicycle and soneone - in my case another very old man - bikes you around). It was quite expensive but then it was so hot and this old man had to push my weight around town so i didnt mind paying a bit extra, plus as he told me about 100 times he had 6 children which he needed to buy food for! We went to Independence Palace first, which really isnt worth the bother in less you are very interested in history and 1960s architecture! After we biked pass Notre Dame Cathedral and then went to the war reminants museum. The displays here, however, tended to be very one sided. Basically it just showed you all the terrible things the Americans did during the war, for example there were many photos of people who had been affected by the Agent Orange that the US sprayed across the countryside including the deformed fetus of a baby born shortly after the war had finished. I am sure if you were American and you
visited you would leave feeling extremely guilty, and whilst i could see all the truly awful things the Americans did when they began to lose the war I am sure that the Viet Cong also committed many awful crimes which were not represented here at all.
Travelling around the city by cyclo was so nice because it is the busiest place i have ever been yet going slowly along on the front of a bicycle was so peaceful. There are more motobikes in this city than i have seen anywhere, at times they have to go on the path as there is no room on the road for them all! Crossing the road involved several near death experiences and when you reached the other side in one piece (half an hour later!!) you really felt like you had achieved something!!
The next day we went on a tour - big mistake as spent most of the day on the bus with a slightly insane tour guide who called himself Slim Jim!! He used to be a teacher and you could very much tell from the way he spoke to us!! First we visited a temple in Tay Ninh
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Felt like royalty!!which belongs to the Co Dai religion and we watched their midday service. There were 100s of them in the temple to join the service and they all dress in white and sit in straight lines with women on one side and men on the other. The religion is a mixture of Hindu, Buddism and Christianity - so they worship many gods. Originally they had a pope but once he died it was decided that no one else was qualified to take over so now they just have high ranking officials who dress in red, blue or yellow. It was interesting to see their service but not worth the four hours it took to get there.
Next we went to the Cu Chi tunnels, these tunnels were created by the Viet Cong during the war and at one time stretched all the way to the Cambodian border. They were very small in order to survive a bomb blast, this meant that to go along them the soldiers had to pull themselves on their stomachs. Many people died when the tunnels collapse, and today most of them have collapsed but one has been recreated at a slightly bigger size so
that us large westerners can fit along it!! It was only 100m long but i couldnt make it to the end as couldnt see a thing and began to panic that i would get stuck! So i would not have been any good as a soldier! They also built undergroud kitchens, dining rooms and workshops and cleverly disguised the smoke from the kitchens.
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Mumsy
non-member comment
No Lauren..Serendipity is absolutely fine. However its 'unless' not 'in less' and there were 'remnants' and its 'ridiculously' cheap!!! Just a few typos here and there but still very very interesting and a pleasure to read!! Wish I was there! Keep safe in 'Nam. Speak soon. xxxx oh and ps the 'very old man' driving you around looked considerably younger than me!!!!