Saigon (Ho Chi Minh)

Due mainly to time, we took the easy option to get back to Saigon, and flew, 1hr. It saves us a day of boat and bus. We arrived early afternoon, we didn’t take an early flight. From the airport we took the local bus saving us $8 on a taxi! We hoped to eat Thai at the same restaurant as our other night in Saigon but it was closed, so we settled for a restaurant with a menu as long as your arm but including pad thai. It was tasty, and huge serves, we didn’t eat again for the rest of the day. After lunch, Christine checked out a few hotels and we quickly choose one, with air con and hot water, luxury!
We didn’t stay long, we headed out and about. We walked down to Ben Thanh Market which was full of all sorts of things. Christine got a t-shirt with Saigon power lines and motorbikes on it. We also found a big bottle of moisturizer for our burns and another bottle of sunscreen. The market was huge it also had areas with cafes, fruit, vegetables, meats and seafoods.

As the market was closing up we headed out and wandered the city streets. What do you think we found, another shopping center/market this time more aimed at locals. Christine got another t shirt! Bastards, despite not being a tourist market, they still tried to charge tourist prices! In the end they probably still got a pretty sweet deal.
We found a tiny little café and thought a short break was in order. After a long discussion about what water was used to make the ice we had ice coffees. We liked this place, the owner was very friendly. We hoped to make it back tomorrow for a coconut.
We continued our walk past the big tower in the middle of the city. We found another market and food shop we would also like to return to. It had pork buns, cooked corn and sweet potatoes as well as roasted meats. Most importantly there were heaps of locals jumping off their motor bikes, buying bag full’s and riding off again. We had a look at the river, past the opera house and at the Vietnamese version of Notre Dame. Finally we rested and had a beer before heading home and booking a Cu Chi tunnels tour the following morning.
Early next morning we were up, showered and got bread rolls from a street vendor, a very cheap and quick breakfast. When the tour bus arrived it was very full, but not a huge bus, maybe 20 people. We didn’t have seats together, but wasn’t a big problem, the group was very mixed. Damien sat next to a girl from London and Christine next to a Spanish girl. Frustratingly we had a shopping stop at a shelter work centre for people with disabilities due to the Agent Orange that makes lacquer work. Two and a half hours later we finally arrived at the tunnels.
We were amazed how controlling some people can be. One of the girls on the bus insisted to the guide, that we watch the video first, because that is what it said in the brouchure. We had to laugh. The video was very biased, what happened to the Vietnamese during the war is terrible but there were lots of very judgment based comments. The Cu Chi area was described as a very peaceful and beautiful community based solely on farming. People would make day trips from Saigon to have picnics there until the “Crazy Devil American Bomber” unleashed hell on the villages. They celebrated the Vietnam solders who received “American Killer Hero” awards. It’s a bit sad but it is so biased that the whole thing becomes hilarious. After the video we walked around the grounds which is a bit jungle like. We saw the man hole entrances used by the Viet Cong which were very small, Damien struggled getting in and out with such broad shoulders! There were the replica traps used by the VC, which were very inhumane, although this wasn’t mentioned in the video! They used bear trap type contraptions, booby trapped doors and pits in the hidden in the ground with all sorts of spikes and graters for people to fall into. These killed many local people also, again, not mentioned in the video. After a stop at the gift shop and shooting range, where you can pay to use a number of weapons (apparently you used to also be able to throw grenades and use rocket launchers, but not anymore), we headed for more tunnels. This section of tunnels has been widened so that the big tourists can fit down, but it is still only about a meter tall and very narrow. It gets even smaller in parts, meaning we had to crawl or slide along. After completing the whole 100m of tunnels, which was hot and hard work, we got a chance to sit down and given Vietnamese tea. Then it was back on the bus, with our tunnel experience complete. No stops on the way back at any factories which was a bonus. Back in Saigon we were dropped at the War Remnants Museum. After a bite to eat and a cool drink we visited the museum. This was bit of a mixed experience, with some parts again being hilariously biased, the Americans did this, da da da da da… Out the front of the museum were a number of tanks and planes from the war and inside had an interesting collection of weapons. There was a good photo exhibition displaying photos of journalists from around the world during the war time. Running out of time before it closed we had a hurried look at the ‘tiger cages’ which were used during the early years of the war, for storing prisoners. Were not too sure, but think these were used by the South Vietnamese Army, or the French, again not too sure.
After an interesting day we ate an early dinner at Quan An Ngon, an excellent street style food place in a nice hut style restaurant. We feasted on Vietnamese pancake, rice paper rolls, noodle wanton soup and chicken skewer. On way home we organized our open bus ticket from Saigon to Hanoi, starting with a trip to Dalat in the morning. Then it was home to use the internet and repack our bags.