We were a little afraid of arriving in Saigon after hearing about all the bag snatching and crime that goes on but were nicely surprised. The city although bussling isnt as cramped as Hanoi and was ok, as cities go. We found a nice but slightly overpriced hostel and checked in, it had a nice location, with a cheap noodle street eat on the corner and a load of bars in the other direction!
Our first full days sightseeing was to the Cu Chi tunnels where the Vietnamese soldiers hid from the US forces during the war, they were tiny! The complex system was amazingly well though out, they were so tiny as Vietnamese are small and americans not so, so they couldnt fit in! It also showed us some of their traps...nasty little b*****s would hate to fall down a hole with metal spikes on rollers to stab you from head to toe...literally! You could crawl down 30, 60 or 90 metres of tunnel, most people bailed out at the 60m spot but 5 of us kept going for the full 90m. I only just fit through so lord knows how some of the blokes did it! They also showed us how the soldiers made shoes from old tyres and put the chimeys from their underground kitchens at about 100m from the kitchen site and kep the smoke close to the ground to avoid detection. It was really fascinating.
In the afternoon we visited the Reunification palace which was interesting but rather plain to be honest. No old style building it was built in the 60's as the old one burnt to the ground, however it did have an underground bunker with loads of 60's "modern equipment" a portable radio was about the size of a smallis tv, quite amusing! We also did the museum which showed a lot of photos and told the stories of the ones who lost out really in the war i suppose, children who lost their parents and vice versa and victims of the agent orange bombings, really sad. They also had a reconstruction of the cages they kept them in and the shackles, not nice at all the treatment was horiffic.
Our final day in HCMC we did a tour of the Mekong delta, saw a lot of the islands and it was a nice boat trip got some tradiditonal music, a fruit buffet and the most amazing Vietnamese tea with honey and a lot of interesting local snacks! We saw the locals making coconut candy (MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!) made from coconut milk and it was incredibly nice! We took a boat ride down a tiny little canal off the side of the Mekong by the locals! On the way back it pissed it down and we were all huddled on this boat soaking wet with umbrellas up!
After this we figured we deserved a drink so we stopped in bar, luckily as there was a powercut when we get the pics of the local wiring up youll see why! After a hot shower we went out for a few more beers, after 5 (Si had one more than me cus hes a gannet!) the bloke was amazed when we ordered two more ÿouve had 5 already and you want two more...wow!" Good lord if he came out with us on a bit of a binge at home he'd have a heart attack! We were then woke up at 5 am as a funeral procession went passed our hotel, they were all wearing long white dresses banging on drums and carrying a large casket.
The next day was the eastiest border crossing in the world to cambodia get on bus, get off bus have name called get back on then were in! Brilliant!!!