Well - after a two day stop in Mui Ne - another beachy place with massive sand dune where we got to do some sand sleighing and visit these really cool canyons (see pics) we finally made it to Ho Chin Minh City - otherwise known as Saigon.
Saigon is virtually the capital of the south and is surprisingly westernised in comparison to Hanoi.
As this city played a huge role during the Vietnam War, we decided to educate ourselves by visiting the National War Remnants Museum which was brilliant although a little depressing! The museum seemed to give a one sided account of the whole story and definitely didn't portray the Americans in the best light!
On our second day we took an organised trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels which is basically a vast system of underground tunnels used and created by the Cu Chi Guerillas during the war!
The whole system stretch over 200km and some parts reach as deep as 10m below the surface!
As part of the trip we had to crawl through a small (or so they told us) stretch. To begin we lowered ourselves in to a hole/ entrance no wider than a dining place mat (these were designed small enough for the skinny Vietnamese so that the bulky Americans wouldn't be able to fit) - I even thought I was going to get stuck - thank God I didn't - that would've been embarrassing (see pic)!
Once underground we had to crouch shuffle along (the tunnels are less than 1m high) and at some parts crawl on our hands and knees as the tunnels were so small! This definitely isn't for the claustrophobic - it was absolutely pitch black down there and the deeper we went, the hotter it got! We realised at one point we weren't the only ones down there... as in domino effect, we all let out a scream as something flapped past our head/ears - we were all so freaked out as we couldn't see a thing - not even each other and all the noises just seemed to echo through the tunnel system! After we'd calmed down and continued towards the first dim lantern we'd reached in the last 10mins our suspicions were confirmed that our newly found 'friends' were in fact bats! And i'm guessing the sludgy stuff on the floor that i'd been blindly crawling through had been none other than... yep you guessed it... BAT POO!
After a good 20mins of bats, poo, sauna conditions and utter darkness we reached the exit point - my God were we relieved but laughed our heads off when we caught sight of each other... we looked like we'd been on the run in the jungle for the last week - soaking from sweat (nice), covered head to toe in dirt, hair all over the place - but so relieved! It also turned out the bats weren't our only company down there - we were all covered (no exaggeration) in mosquito bites... I counted 16 on one leg!
Oh well... looking back I certainly don't regret it (although at the time...)
When we got back we jumped at the chance to get our laundry done... in a washing machine! This was luxury for us as hand washing was the norm in north Vietnam - my whites came up lovely and clean... small things eh!
So... that's Vietnam done and dusted... an amazing but regionally very different place - although it's very much on the tourist trail I think we had some very unique experiences.
Highlights - trekking in Sapa, sleeping in the tribal villages, Halong Bay and sunbathing in Hoi An!
Next stop... Cambodia via a 2 day slow boat trip along the Mekong.
Speak to you then!
XXX
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