Oliveramber's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) - Cu Chi Tunnels
Entry 11 of 29 | show all | print this entry |
Bus from Mui Ne was suppose to take 4 hrs but in true Vietnam style it took closer to 6 so arrived into the hustle and bustle of Saigon around 8pm. Streets were alive with cafes, bars, hawkers trying to sell books piled high above their heads, cigarettes, chewing gum and god knows what else.
As our VISA was due to expire we were only able to stay in Saigon for 2 nights/1 day - enough to check out some of the night life and visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, some 30km away.
Cu Chi Tunnels became legendary during the 1960's and is one of the most famous battlegrounds of the Vietnam War. At its height, the tunnel system stretched from Saigon to the Cambodian boarder. There was more than 200km of tunnels in the Cu Chi district alone. It took some 20 years to build and became home to more than 16,000 people. They ate, slept, bathed - did everything underground - truly remarkable.
We got to crouch and scurry through some of the tunnels which had been widened to meet the much larger frames of tourists. Even then they were incredibly small and incredibly hot. You'd think being underground it would be quite cool but nope complete opposite. It was like being in a sauna. We all came out dripping with sweat and that was after having only spent minutes inside.
Walking through the bush you realised just how scary it must have been to have fought in such conditions. The trees and scrub was so dense you wouldn't have been able to see people approach from 50m away, possibly even 20m if you've eyesight like mine! Hidden under the foliage were trapdoors covering huge bamboo spikes waiting to pierce whatever fell through. Other trapdoors contained mental spikes - once you fell onto them there was no way out.. .they would just dig in deeper. Really horrific stuff, especially walking past the huge craters made by B52's and various other bombs.
Whilst your eyes were taking in all these things your ears were full of gun fire coming from the nearby firing range. Walking through a battle field and listening to a real machine gun go off not far from where you're standing is rather eerie to say the least. We decided to expand our weapon experience just a little bit more so Oliver opted for the AK-47 and handgun whilst I went straight to the top and chose the biggest gun there was - an M60 machine gun. This thing was HUGE!!! Unfortunately it was fixed to a wall so I couldn't walk around GI Jane style but it was still pretty good to fire.
After the tunnels we headed back into Saigon and went to the War Remnants Museum, previously called the Museum of American War Crimes. It was very interesting but also incredibly sad to see all the photos of mutilated bodies - especially one of an American soldier carrying what used to be a person but was now just a bloody T-shirt with head dangling near the ground and an arm somewhere else. Just awful.
Also very disturbing was the section on Agent Orange and the effects thereof. People who fought in Agent Orange effected areas carried the toxins and passed it on to their future children who, for a large part, were born deformed. Poor people, they survive the war and are left with that as a souvenir years later.
So after depressing ourselves enough we returned to the hotel then caught up with the Irish girls for dinner and drinks. Into the evening we decided to head to an Irish bar "Sheridans". Hailed a taxi and off we went... drove past Gucci, Versace and numerous other high end stores before pulling into the Sheraton. Yeah buddy we're not that rich - we wanted the dodgy Irish bar Sheridans not the Sheraton! After driving around a bit more and asking numerous people we finally found it. As with our previous catch ups, we ended up getting home at about midnight or 1am.... just what we needed before a 6am rise and a 2 day boat/bus trip!
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by oliveramber, from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
