There are certain places in the world you wouldn't drive, this city is one of them. Mind you it is also nearly impossible to be a pedestrian. We arrived to this city by coach and the journey takes 6 or 7 hours, 2 of which is from the edge of Ho chi Ming to district 1 where the coach drops us off!!! This is where our bargain $5 a night hotel is. Getting to our hotel was easy and it did not disappoint. Clean with all the add ons you need; wifi, satellite tv, ensuite with toiletries, fridge and air con!!! We decided to take a wander to get our bearings and to see what the city was all about! This is where we find out that to be a pedestrian in this city you have got to be alert!!! Crossing the road is impossible unless you take the plunge, dodging motorbikes .... there are thousands!!! And whilst cars obey traffic lights motorbikes don't seem too!! Also there are no real pedestrian crossings, although their are zebra crossings but they seem to have lost the purpose of what they are over time!!! As we wandered we saw the common Asian traits of cooking in the street, massage shops, street sellers and aromas! We had a few interesting road crossing episodes and found more markets. It was now dark, rush hour and getting even busier on the roads. It was now the 'find somewhere to eat mission' but now we had to negotiate more and more motorbikes who are now using the pathway to avoid the vast volume of traffic on the roads!!! So our first impressions of this city is that it is far too busy, crazy in fact... With the traffic and the constant 'toot', 'beep', 'honk' really was too much!!! We found a back street Italian restaurant and had a relaxing lovely meal and returned to our hotel to relax before our big day of sightseeing the next day. We had booked ourselves onto a half day visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels out of town, they were used during the war to allow Vietnamese to evade the onslaught from the Americans. (I could go into a long account of this but won't!) We made our way to the tour meeting point and got on the mini bus, our guide told us we would have a 2 hour drive to the tunnels and would stop at a craft centre on the way. It transpired as he spent about 40 mins explaining the history that the people who now work at the craft centre are the disabled people, a consequence of the war as many had been born with defects because of the Nalpalm bombing by the Americans. We arrived to see the amazing art work they were producing using slates, egg shells and marine shells with a process of layering and lacquering. It was beautiful but unfortunately we were unable to buy any because we just can't carry it!!! We arrive at the tunnels where our tour guide led us through the various points that demonstrate the shear determination and ingenuity of the Vietnamese to protect themselves and their land from the Americans. What is really amazing is that they had no weapons so used traps to catch and gather weapons and a tunnel system that could only fit the smaller frame of the Vietnamese. If you look at the photos you can see some of the evidence of tunnels and traps, but where I had got into the tunnel they had made them slightly bigger for our size to fit in. I only went 100m through one, there is no way I can imagine how they spent18 years in these and survived! It is still evident in Vietnam of those who had to go through this as if you see an old woman bent over then they experienced real warfare.... Their spines were unable to correct after so many years underground!!! All in all it seemed as though the war was for nothing, it ended up a communist country anyway! But the visit to these tunnels demonstrated the Vietnamese resilience and determination to keep what is rightfully their country.
On returning to our hotel we decided to do city sight seeing and wander up to the cathedral, a quick view inside we observed people praying according to the stations of the cross!!! I don't think it is Easter!!! The decor was pretty bland but none the less another place ticked off. Across the road we found a shopping centre so in true Sarah shopping mode we had a look, in fact I purchased some new flip flops as mine had had it!!! On the way back to the hotel we played a little game of the retro game of Frogger with the traffic and packed in readiness to leave this crazy city to fly north.