Day 91 –HCMC

Don’t think we’ll be having lie in’s, in these beds. Let the hotel search begin. Our new hotel was a thousand times better, with a big TV, big bed, bath and wifi. Once moved in we went to the War Remnants Museum. It was a really good museum, but typically Vietnamese; very biased with their portrayal of the war. We had to leave at 12:30 for the Vietnamese lunch break and came back an hour later to see the rest of the museum. It was too late in the day to go to the Reunification Palace so we had lunch in café and awesome Pho Bo and Pho Ga. We got back to our guesthouse via peddle power, after which we had a little confrontation over the price. At our old hotel, we booked our trip to the Cu Chi tunnels and our evening teaching at a school. In the eve we ate in an Indian which didn’t disappoint – it’s been too long. HCMC so far is brilliant.

Day 92

An early rise for us to catch our bus to the Cu Chi tunnels. Our tour guide called himself Elly, due to the fact that his name means Elephant in Vietnamese. Our 2 hour journey to the tunnels ended up with a short break in a handicraft shop. This had been set up as an organization that employed those who had been affected by the Vietnam War and Agent Orange. The place had some really beautiful stuff, but was also amazingly expensive.
Our tour around the tunnels was really informative, including information about the booby traps which were really gruesome.
We had an opportunity to fire an AK-47, which apparently according to Rog, was too good of an opportunity to miss; however expensive. Rog got 8 bullets to fire and lucky old me got 2 bullets!!! Rog took his time to hit the target as apparently you get a free prize, this obviously was a trick to get you to pay to use the gun. The other guns were so loud and the ear muffs they gave you were a pile of poop.
We were then led to the network of tunnels which we were allowed to go through, we waited until the end. Rog went first and I followed. So far so good- I actually thought we were in the tunnels, oh no, just an entrance they made for westerners!! This is when I made a sharp exit, and reversed. Rog however was a big brave shoulder, and went the whole way, about 60m. The tunnel got really small and dark. Unfortunately Rog was the only person left down there, and couldn’t carry on any further as he couldn’t see where to go!
We then watched a massively biased film documentary on the Vietnam War. On the way back on the coach, Rog fell asleep so funny. The video is hilarious.
In the evening we went to the school, where we volunteered to help out. Little did we know that we were actually the teachers!! It was fun to begin with until we ran out of things to teach. Rog absolutely loved it, and wants to do it again which is good.
We met Sam and Dan there, a couple from Portsmouth, and went out for dinner and drinks with them in the evening. Good old Bia Hoi made this a really cheap evening, 30p a litre.

Day 93

Got up, had breaki and headed for the Reunification Palace. This was only okay and was only made slightly better because of the guided tour. We booked our Open Bus Tour tickets, which worked out to be pretty reasonable, considering the distance we would be travelling and the amounts of stops we would be making.
We met up with Sam and Dan again for a few more Bia Hoi’s before hunting down some cheap grub around the backpacker area. After dinner we managed to find seats again at one of the only places that served Bia Hoi in town, all be it our table and chairs were in the road! Had a really nice evening and topped it off with a kebab – brill.