Vietnam, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) - "Same Same"
Trip Start
Nov 16, 2008
1
16
32
Trip End
Feb 07, 2009
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Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Arrived early afternoon into Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City as it is now known, and our first task was to find a hotel as from here onwards we haven't booked any accommodation.....
Using the faithful guide we headed into the heartland of the backpacker area and found several hotels all in a long line of each other. Besides the fight at the airport for taxi drivers to get our business we had to swerve passed several hotel touts but eventually found a small but sufficient mid-range hotel for the massive price of $16!! Looks like things are cheap over here and we might be able to save a little on our budget.
Loads of stuff to do from Saigon like visit the Mekong Delta and visit the local villages that live on the river (via a boat trip) or visit the Cu Chi tunnels and see how the war was won and lost (if there was a winner and a loser) or even take a trip into the National Park of Cat Tien and go on a few safaris (probably no tigers!!). However with loads of sites to see, markets to visit, shopping for cheap electronics and only 2 days in Saigon itself we opted for the tunnels.
And what a great choice it was. Even though it was advertised for half a day the excursion lasted a full day pretty much as we made a trip to a local craft factory and Mike playing with real guns at the tunnels mixed in.
These tunnels were absolutely fascinating and it was the intelligence needed to build them and complexity of the tunnel systems that impressed us the most.
Saigon.... motorbike city!!
You are first introduced to the tunnels via a short film which paints a very different story to the one you see in the American movies like Platoon or Hamburger Hill. Very biased towards the Northern Viet Kong and anti-west themes there were hero stories told throughout of how the Northern armies of Vietnam devastated the moral and will of the Southern Vietnam and American armies. I guess propaganda works both ways. Our local guide wasn't entirely convinced that the stories actually happened let alone interested in the tales of bravery but it was a good starting point on our introduction to the Cu Chi tunnels. For anyone wanting to find out more about these tunnels click on the link and read more (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/720577.stm ). Essentially, over 250kms of tunnels were built underground, they stretched as far as Cambodia, and were so complex that they even had Hospitals, Theatres, kitchens.... all underground. The most impressive part about these tunnels is the fact that the soil they had to dig through was one of the hardest soils known in the world. Part of the tour involves going through the tunnels which is no mean feat considering the tunnels were built for the small frames of the Vietnamese (they had expanded them in the 90's to take into account the typical tourist frames). The main Cu Chi tunnels was the area in which one of the biggest American bases was built (unbeknown to the Americans at the time) and many causalities fell in this area. It was easy to see why.
At the end of the tour there was an opportunity to fire some of the weapons that were used in the Vietnam wars.
Crazy about Christmas...
10 rounds on an M16 and 10 rounds on an Ak-47 and Mike was happy with Mish jumping at the sound of every shot! After the tour was over we headed back to Saigon and then onto a War remnants museum where there were harrowing stories from the war along with a large collection of ammunitions, tanks and aircraft. The Vietnam war was one of the most horrific known to man kind, mainly due to the number of people that were killed and the museum was full of horrific photographs which would make your stomach turn. After a dark day in the tunnels and listening and reading all the stories both both sides of the fence we were in need of a chilled and laid back day. So toured some local markets and visited one or two shopping malls. Markets had everything from cheap knock off T-shirts for $2 or local handy crafts (lots of them) or food delights such as a bowl full fresh larvae or some roasted BBQ dog's tongues!! yum yum! Surprising Electronics here is much more expensive than the UK. If you are planning to come to Vietnam for cheap cameras or mp3 players.... I wouldn't bother.
Food here is cheap and full of local Vietnamese eateries and Western restaurants serving the usual but one restaurant here stood out called Lemon grass which was delicious. Pho Bo is a local favourite which is basically beef noodle soup and really scrummy.
Earlier on in the day we booked ourselves some day tickets on a train to head up towards Nha Trang ( 8 hours away) which is supposed to be one of the best areas for diving and one of the best beaches in Vietnam..... at long last we might actually be able to get some sun on this travel trip!!!
