July 13th
First day in Vietnam, we were awoken at the border for immigration. It was hitting sunrise, Hemal and half the bus had passed through fairly quickly but it took another hour for the rest of us to eventually be handed our passports and let through.
Back on the coach, our cute guide apologised sincerely, asking forgiveness to her and her company for the delay, and was bought to tears for making us wait so long. You have to love these people...as much as they try to rip you off, they really care about offering you a good service.
A short while later we arrived in the bustling and surprisingly well developed city of Ho Chi Minh. Caught a cab with an English/Australian woman called Laurie and a couple from Hertfordshire. A bit of hotel hunting later, we checked into a decent place along a narrow alley in the backpacker area. Freshened up and headed out for some dinner with Laurie and a quick drink.
Feeling exhausted from all the travelling and the long last night in Sihanoukville, we headed to bed for a long comfortable sleep.
July 14th
After a simple breakfast of toasted baguette with butter and jam, we got ready, changed rooms (we were in a family room) and headed out.
We flagged down a cyclo and attempted to squeeze ourselves into it. Ending up with Hemal sitting between my legs we quickly split into a second cyclo who took us to the 'expensive' Ben Thanh market. We were travelling just a little faster than walking pace which made for an interesting experience what with all the mopeds whizzing past.
After five minutes negotiation with a well spoken cyclo, we decided to let them give us a quick tour to some spots in Ho Chi Minh.
We had lunch in a fantastic little cafe opposite the market called Pho 2000 (Pho = noodles, Com = rice). The basic looking place complete with pictures of when Bill Clinton visited in 2000 was in a prime location and served some of the best spring rolls and vegetable noodle soup we had tasted all for a very reasonable price.
Whizzed through the market which was selling some great stuff but as we were not about to start lugging our shopping around, we didn't spend too much time there. After that we visited a Hindu temple, the War memorial museum, a bonsai garden and Lacquer factory. The latter of which was a pleasant surprise as they showed us some great pieces of work made from eggshell and mother of pearl. Unfortunately the ones we really liked were 'slightly' out of our price range...
After getting caught in a short downpour, we arrived back outside our hotel. Went to buy some essentials and tried some Durian fruit which we had been meaning to try since Thailand (revered as the king of fruits in SE Asia). I found it quite nice, with the consistency of mango, a strange smell and custard like flesh. We were told it doesn't suit the western palate and we can see why. It is quite an acquired taste.
We were told by our receptionist to co the the central part of Saigon if we were looking for some decent bar/restaurants. What we found were very westernised and very expensive restaurants full of rich tourists. Headed back to our area and grabbed some dinner and a drink in a busy backpacker hangout called Go 2. I then persuaded Hemal to head to one of the local bars. I tended to prefer mingling with the locals whereas Hemal preferred the backpacker places.
This could be attributed to all the attention i received from the local females. They seemed to be fascinated by my baldness and i was receiving several 'compliments' from giggling staff ranging from looking like Buddha to a movie star ;)
Went to a tiny bar round the corner from where we were staying and had a couple of drinks while chatting to the cheeky/bubbly waitress. Had an early start the next day to see the Cu Chi tunnels so didn't stay out too late.
July 15th
Last day in Saigon, got picked up in the morning by our tour guide for the day and hopped into a bus for the 2ish hour ride to Cu Chi. Our tour guide gave us a brief history lesson on the way. Once there we were directed to a large room to watch a 20min video about Cu Chi and how the residents literally dug themselves out of harm's way when faced with American attempts to neutralise them.
We were then taken outside through the drizzling rain making stops at various well set-up areas to show us lethal booby-traps, concealed trap doors and an abandoned tank amongst other things.
We then eventually reached the tunnels themselves. We were warned that they were pretty claustrophobic so i had already sort of decided to skip going in after remembering a particularly horrible scene in the film The Descent. Feeling brave however, i decided to go in. The fact that the tunnels had been widened for westerners was amazing as the original residents used to crawl through a gap one quarter of the current size and would stay underground for up to two weeks at a time!
Before entering we were told the tunnel was 100m long with 2 exit points at 40 and 60m. Once in the tunnel i managed to move along fairly easily after bending over to fit in the 1.2m high gap. It was very hot and sweaty after about a minute of being in their and we were going at a fairly slow pace due to the number of people ahead. Half way through the first leg we came to a standstill as someone had stopped further ahead. Waiting for around a minute felt like ages with sweat flowing and the only light provided by my AF assist lamp on my camera, i had to stop myself from letting the 'fear' set in (only a slight exaggeration).
We were soon moving again and the majority of people exited at 40m. Hemal asked if we should carry on and i thought 'why not' (a phrase we had started using for everything after picking it up from David at the Mermaid bar). The next leg was much taken at a much quicker pace but we were again stopped, this time by a girl in front of us who had seen a 'massive' spider and was waiting for it to move.
Reaching the next exit i thought we should go for the whole thing. Hem reluctantly agreed to follow so we started heading forward. Around the first bend the cave appeared to go deeper and get smaller. This was enough for us to head back and get out!
We stopped shortly after that for a break and Hemal and I decided to fire off a few rounds on an AK-47. The experience wasn't as good as the shooting in Krakow and was very rushed but the newbies seemed to love it.
We stopped off at a couple more places to see bomb craters and other memorabilia before sitting down to a small lunch of boiled cassava (mogo to us Indians) and green tea. A typical meal for the locals during the war.
The tour ended shortly after and we found ourselves back at the hotel a few hours later with our laundry waiting for us (clean clothes, woohoo). We popped out shortly afterward for some food in a nearby restaurant which had the cutest two week old puppy stumbling around.
Hemal decided to get his hair trimmed & highlighted in an expensive hairdressers named Tony & Tuan (the logo directly lifted from Tony & Guy). While this was being done, the heavens opened and it started to pour down. To prolong our stay in the hairdresser and wait out the rain, i had a foot massage but the rain still wouldn't let up. We couldn't wait any longer as our coach was leaving shortly. We waded through the ankle deep water, removing my flip flops to stop them floating away. Went into a restaurant nearby to order a takeaway for the coach trip. While we were waiting i felt something lick my ankle, looking under the table to find a large rat scuttle off...(as nasty as that sounds, at the time i was just relieved it didn't bite me!)
Grabbing our takeaway egg fried rice, the rain had reduced to a light drizzle so we again waded through the middle of the street. It was actually not that bad now that the rain had stopped, the water was warm and walking barefoot was rather nice...
Back at the hotel we dried off and changed clothes before our bus arrived. We had organised an 'Open tour' bus from Saigon to Hanoi stopping off at Nha Trang, Hoi An and Hue.
Our first leg to Nha Trang was about 10-12 hours overnight so we managed to save a night's accommodation. The bus was average but the guy working on it was incredibly rude. The A/C wasn't high enough and by this point Hem's arm or leg touching me as i was trying to fall asleep was getting annoying to say the least.
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