Saigon
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2004
1
15
88
Trip End
Jan 28, 2005
Saigon,
Vietnam
Saturday, June 19, 2004
A lie in and a late brunch before a visit to the War Remnants Museum. The museum documents many of the US atrocities comitted during the war as well s a model of the nortorious Tiger cages used by the South Vietnamese militray to house and torture Viet Cong prisoners. Photographs and pictures show deformed babies, their defect attributed to Agent Orange and children mangled by American bombing, napalming and artillery shells. Photos depicting scenes of torture were particularly horrific. Our 3 hour visit was a slow and silent one.
We return to the hotel and arrange to meet the Chester boys for food and football. Being the Koala that I am, I return for a 2 hour nap between 11pm and 1am before the long awaited opener against France. 90 mins of joy, 3 minutes of injury time misery follow
Reunification Palace Gates, Saigon
. We return, disheartened to bed at 4am.Expenses: Lunch 70,000 museum 20,000 internet 4,000 dinner 161,000 beer 34,000
Mon 14 Jun - Day 46
An earlyish start with a trip to the Cambodian Embassy to apply for our visas. We then take a slow stroll back through the city. Lee visited the Reunification Palace ahich is where the first communist tanks in Saigon, crashed through the gates of the then Presedential Palace, unfurling a VC flag from the 4th floor balcony and symbolising the transfer of power. The building has been preserved almost as it was on that day in April 1975 when the Republic of Vietnam, which hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and nearly 60,000 Americans had died trying to save, ceased to exist. Eerie.
We took a visit to a bunch of tour operators to find out if we could get to Cambodia by boat and mulled over our options over a leisurely lunch. We book a tour of the Mekong Delta which ends in Pnom Penh and departs tomorrow.
We collect our visas, enjoy our final dinner in Saigon and retire early, ready for our 6am alarm call.
Expenses: Bikes 40,000 visas $50 museum 15,000 internet 4,500 lunch 60,000 dinner 150,000 bad 35,000 wax 240,000 lighter 30,000 beer 24,000
