Ho Chi Minh City otherwise known as Saigon
Trip Start
Jul 31, 2005
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81
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Trip End
Sep 05, 2007
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HCMC/Saigon,
Vietnam
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Ho Chi Minh City as it is known in the North and is the politically correct name for the city is known locally by its old name as Saigon. It is a huge city, busy and bustling and when we arrived laden with our luggage, we quickly learned to manouvere the streets and traffic. We made a reservation at a reccommended guesthouse because we knew that we would be arriving late, and we found it easily with no problems. However, when we arrived the man said that the previous days guests had not yet checked out, and so the room was not available, we were a bit annoyed at this, but reluctantly went to the guesthouse next door, which was more expensive and checked in for the night.
A night was all we stayed there, it was too far away from the area we wanted to be in, and so that night we ate dinner and scoured the guesthouses in the main backpacker area, the very next morning we checked out and found a new room, more expensive, but a much better location and a much better room.
We have spent our time here in the travellers cafes and shopping in the huge Ben Tham market. On our first afternoon we visited the War Remnants museum, which was very interesting but horrific at the same time, we toured the Reunification Palace and bought ourselves cheap fake England footie shirts, bought some beer from the supermarket and settled into watch the match!
Yesterday we took a tour 120kms north of Saigon to a town called Tay Ninh.
Ali at Cu Chi Tunnels
Tay Ninh is home to the Cao Daism Holy see, a very interesting religion which is a blend of Catholicism, Islam, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucisism. The temple was absolutley stunning, huge pillars decorated the temple throughout, the colours were astounding, and we stopped there to watch the noon ceremony, the smell of incense was beautiful and the hymns sounded so relaxing. After this we went to the famous Cu Chi tunnels, known as the Viet Cong's underground network during the VN/US war, we managed to go inside a part of the tunnel which was original, they were only just over a metre high and 800mm wide - very claustraphobic, I only just fit!! We were only on the first level underground, and these tunnels have three levels...an amazing place to visit.Thats Vietnam over with for us, we have decided not to visit the Mekong Delta as the monsoon is coming in, and we need an excuse to revisit anyway! So tommorow morning we are taking a bus to the border and all going well we shall cross into Cambodia and be in Phnom Penh by tommorow evening.
Vietnam has been amazing, such a diverse country, we have visited ancient temples, swam in the clear seas, sailed amongst limestone karsts, dodged the motorbikes in the busy cities, shopped till we dropped in the markets, visited tribal villages in the mountains and eaten more food than we could ever have imagined. The people here are really nice and we have had a wonderful month.
Cambodia beckons......!!!
Hugs
Ali and Matt
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