Miss Saigon
Trip Start
Nov 25, 2004
1
33
169
Trip End
Jan 26, 2005
Ho Chi Minh,
Vietnam
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
We bumped into our clubbing friends again who took us on a night on the town! We went to a Bia Hoi which is basically like a huge garage where you get served very cheap beer in what looks like big urine bottles and then we hit the more dignified Saigon nightlife setting the dancefloor on fire! Excellent music and a great boogy even if our heads were a bit thick the next morning! Really great to meet them just to see a different side of the city!
Paul then convinced me that we should hire a motorbike to go out to one of Saigon's water parks! My confidence on a high after our previous experiences - i agreed (think I must have been drunk at the time!) I WAS SCARED TO DEATH - anyone who has been to Saigon will completely undertand what I'm talking about - you literally have to have eyes in th back of your head! There are apparently 7 million motorbikes on the streets of Saigon!!!!! Ahhhh! We made it there in one peice though finally and had a FAB time on all the slides! Big kids as ever! The journey back was fine as well if not equally as hairy and for the next few days the back of my arms killed from hanging on for dear life!!!!
On a more serious note we went to see the Chu Chi tunnels just outside Saigon - the biggest network of tunnels built by the Viet Cong during the war.
Bia Hoi!
I found it really upsetting especially hearing the live guns going off on the shooting range where you can try firing an AK47 - hated the whole concept of this! Just seeing the booby traps - it just made you realise how horrific it must have been for all involved. We've read quite a few books now depicting different sides of the war and none of its good but its been a huge history lesson for us both! The War Remnants Museum in Saigon is also a sobering experience with photos and memoirs from the war - some showing the burn victims from Napalm, others showing deformities caused by Agent Orange - just walking around Saigon there are an unbelieveable amount of people with limbs missing! I think for this reason and seeing how the country has moved on has made us really love this country and feel as if we've really got to see the real people! 
