HO CHI MINH CITY 26TH-28TH DECEMBER 2006

It was about 3hours on a bus from Mui Ne to HCMC and when we arrived it was very busy due to it being christmas week. The cheap accomidation wasn't as good as it was in Hanoi and we ended up staying in a room down an alley above someones house, walking through their living room to enter and exit.

Unofficially the city is still called 'Saigon' but officially after the reunification it was changed to 'Ho Chi Minh City' (HCMC) by the Hanoi government.

HCMC is a chaotic place with loads of traffic and pollution and we didnt like it half as much as Hanoi. The biggest annoyance was the book sellers; so many people carrying stacks of books taller than themselves and forcing them at you, they even walk into the resturants when your trying to eat a meal, its a bit much!

Our first full day we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels were used by the Viet Cong (VC) (North Vietnam) in the fight against the South Vietnamese and Americans in the Vietnam War. The tunnel network of Cu Chi, at its height stretched from the south vietnamese capital to the cambodian border; in the district of Cu Chi alone there were more than 250km of tunnels. The network, part of which was several storeys deep, included innumerable trap doors, booby traps, living areas, storage, weapon factories, field hospitals, command centres and kitchens.

 It was such an interesting day; we learnt all about the Vietnam war from both sides, crawled through the tunnels, which were very hot and chlostrophobic, saw the weapons and booby traps they used and tryed the food they would of eaten. We also got to fire an AK-47 at the shooting range which was great fun, so heavy and SOooo load!

We stayed one more night before leaving HCMC for the Mekong Delta into Cambodia.