Arc En Ciel Hotel Ho Chi Minh City

... off to Saigon. Ahhhhh. There were empty seats everywhere so the kids stretched out and slept and I did too. I don't think Kythera did. She was filling out the entrance forms for Vietnam. <br><br>We landed at Saigon (Tam Son Nhat) and, after organising visas, we got into a cab and headed for our hotel. Jonas on one side of the taxi, windows down... yelling out the window... "Motorbike motorbike motorbike motorbike". Ophelia on ...

... a restaurant. Back on the bus, and half an hour later we were at the border, for what was to become a truly memorable border crossing, not in a positive way, however, but because it was a ****ing farce.<br><br>When the bus had originally set off, we had all handed over our passports to the driver's assistant (henceforth referred to as bus bloke), who had, with his cheery grin and neatly gelled hair, placed them unceremoniously in a plastic bag. Johnny Foreigner, I am a ...

... frame.<br><br>We went to see the Presidential Palace which has been renamed the Independence or Revolution Palace. This is where Tank 843 ran through the gates in that famous LIFE magazine picture and also where the chopper landed on the roof to take the last remaining Americans out of the country. On April 30, 1975, the commies took hold of the Palace, planted their flag on top of it and the South VNese government capitulated and lost the infamous ...

... westerners we arrived at the tunnels. The party comprised of about 40% Brits, 40% Aussies and the rest Americans, Irish, Swiss oh yeah, and Scousers! It was a mixture of half backpackers in their 20s and half middle aged and older.<br><br>We were first shown the original holes the guerrilla army used to enter and exit the tunnels, some of which were as deep as 10m and just 50 centimetres high. I could only just get in there and a fat scouser got stuck!<br><br>After many ...

... of the war of independence against the French and American Imperialism rather than the cold war and the domino effect of communism. There was almost not mention of the USSR or China at all! Still interesting though.<br><br> The next day we went to see the Viet Cong tunnels. I expected it to be no more than a few small tunnels in the Jungle but they had actually made a full blow attraction out of it including this brilliant 60's Vietnamese propaganda ...

... including one about the imprisonment system, showing photos and recreations of detention camps as well as torturing methods including tiger cages and even a guillotine, used to &#8220;exterminate prisoners physically and psychologically&#8221;; photo collections showing &#8220;vestiges of war crimes and aftermaths,&#8221; i.e. victims of Agent Orange, a photo of grinning American soldiers posing in front of decapitated Vietnamese, and many others; as well as an ...

... sightseeing. <br><br>Include with our room was breakfast so we enjoyed fresh bread, bananas, dragon fruit, and coffee. The coffee is a lot sweeter than what I am used to but it is still good and still provides caffeine which is what is truly important. After eating, we were off to conquer the major attractions of Ho Chi Minh, more commonly referred to as Saigon. <br><br>The first evident difference from leaving the hotel was the traffic. It is ...

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... times and relaxing, we figure you still need a day to watch movies and vegg out during a month long trip. As part of this, we decided to treat ourselves to some delivery pizza at the hotel. After saying "cheese only" on the phone around 7 times, we finally had a "medium" pizza heading our way. As you'll see in the photo album below, their medium turned out to be smaller than a personal pizza back in the U.S. We made due and rested ...

... to be a cockfighting show, But no luck.<br><br>At the honey place we all tried some tea, obviously with honey and lemon. Pretty nice actually. I considered buying some, as it tasted so different from any other herbal stuff I'd tasted before. But it was 6 quid. So I'll buy some in the UK. If i remember. Which is doubtful.<br>Also here was a rabbit hutch which had three chicks running about. Oh no it was four wasn't it. As the fourth one was being eaten by the ...