Good morning Vietnam!

Hello again! Pete here - back after a break from blogging! I needed a rest - this travelling lark takes it out of you so thanks to Su and Jeanette for their contributions (which were much better than my usual ramblings!). Anyway, you're stuck with me again this time so on we go....

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh (when I say 'we' I mean Su, Jeanette and myself) by bus from Cambodia after around a 7 hour journey (which was relatively comfortable compared to some of our previous bus journeys!). Some may know Ho Chi Minh as Siagon and indeed, the locals call it Siagon more often than not. It was named Ho Chi Minh after the war with the U.S. - Ho Chi Minh being the founder of the communist party in Vietnam - he was a much revered guy in Vietnam.

First impressions of Ho Chi Minh were of complete bewilderment. It's a manic city with lots of people, lots of motorbikes, lots of tall narrow buildings, and best of all (in my view), lots of restaurants! It's a great place!The following photos will give you a small taste of what Ho Chi Minh is all about:

The photo above is the view from our hotel room. The next photo was also taken from our hotel room and shows two things: a) that some western people are nuts and will go to extreme lengths to look their best, and b) you can get anything in Ho Chi Minh:

They will shine your sandals and give you a manky looking flip flop to wear while you wait. I won't get out of bed in the morning anymore unless I get my flip flops shined first.

We thought that since we were staying a week in Ho Chi Minh that we might as well get a few tours in. We first went to the Cu Chi tunnels which is just a few hours outside Ho Chi Minh. These were tunnels used by the Viet Cong (the Vietnamese resistance during the war with the U.S.) that were used for planning, transport, living space, etc - right beside U.S. bases and a vital reason the Viet Cong were able to exist without capture. Here's a model of what the tunnel network looked like - there were three levels of tunnels, with the lowest level leading out to the Siagon river (in case escape was needed).

These tunnels were made by Vietnamese for Vietnamese and you must remember that the Vietnamese back then were even smaller than they are now so these tunnels are extremely small and narrow. Here's the entrance to one:

And these photos will give you an idea of the width and heights of the tunnels. Remember there are no lights so we were using the flash on the camera just to see where we were going!

Does my bum look big in this? My bum just about made it through and my shoulders were brushing against the sides of the tunnel. Hard going!

It was all very interesting but we were glad to see the light of day afterwards. The next day we went on a trip to the Mekong Delta! The weather wasn't great as it rained half way through. The Delta itself was pretty similar to the sights we saw in Cambodia - they had a floating market selling fruit and veg and we were brought to a coconut candy making factory, and a rice paper making factory.

I say 'factory' - it's all done by hand. We were even given a sample of the local snake wine. It's basically rice wine with a snake and scorpion added. Actually sounds a lot worse than it is.

I think the nephews will definitely find this photo interesting. We also had lunch and even a nice cup of tea! Very civilised! After lunch we were taken on a boat ride along the river - and we were even given some hats to try on!

 

All in all it was a good few days - even though myself and Su were feeling a bit ill due to taking our anti-Malaria tablets. We did manage to pull ourselves together for one night out with Jeanette in Ho Chi Minh and we even found a Guns N Roses pub!

Great night - great company - great city - great craic!

We waved a sad goodbye to Jeanette the next day - it was great to see her and she'll be missed! Some of the photos in this blog are hers (probably the good ones!). The plan is to travel up through Vietnam and make our way to Hanoi eventually. We're looking forward to it! So finally:

More to come!!