Cu Chi Tunnels

Today we met up with a group tour run by Kim Travel (same as yesterdays Mekong Tour) for a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Cuong didn't join us today as he had another family from Sydney to pick up from the airport, but he planned to meet us later after our return. We drove to the tunnels through very heavy traffic in Saigon, and other tour minibus drivers indicated to our driver that the traffic was worse ahead. After passing a cow on a spit, we detoured out of the city to avoid the traffic and eventually were heading back in the right direction. When we got to Cu Chi Province we stopped at a rubber tree plantation to see how they cut the bark to retrieve the sap, as well as to stretch our legs a little.

When we arrived at the car park for the Tunnels, we waited beside a large bomb crater for our turn to watch a propaganda video about the enemy (the USA) and how they wanted to kill and destroy the beautiful Cu Chi countryside. Then it was on to the tunnel area where we saw how the small entrances to the tunnels were concealed. Liam went down the hole, but we had to move on before I had a turn which was probably just as well as I likely would have become stuck. We saw how the various booby traps were made which were all quite nasty.

Walking through the jungle we passed an abandoned US Army tank as we approached the shooting range. The effect was very spooky, as it was almost like being in the war, with the bombed out tank dead in it's tracks and the sounds of AK-47's echoing through the jungle.

At the shooting range, I decided to have a go of the AK-47, even though I hate guns, the chance to fire an AK-47 doesn't present itself too often. I bought 30 rounds at US$1 per round, and preceded to shoot at the targets. The gun was alarming, with an incredible amount of power. A gentle squeeze of the trigger was followed by a huge explosion and kick back as the bullet thumped into the hillside at the back of the range. I managed to hit the target 3 times, which was good enough to earn me a book about the tunnels and a badge, as well as the admiration of the rest of the tour group.

We saw demonstrations of how the villagers lived in concealment in the tunnels; tasting some tapioca which was quite nice (though I wouldn't want to eat it years on end...), and seeing how ingeniously they got rid of smoke from the cooking fires. Liam even got a chance to try making some rice paper, which didn't turn out too badly on the second attempt!

We then crawled through some of tunnels which were well suited to Liam's height, but quite difficult going for my 6 foot height. Walking back to the exit through the jungle we saw a cashew nut tree (a fruit with only one nut hanging from it. No wonder they are so expensive!) We also saw a mango tree with lots of mangoes, but didn't pick any. Liam got some bullet casings as a souvenir, which we were assured would make it through the airport security without any problems. Then we returned back to Saigon, passing the cows on spits, which were completely depleted.

We walked over to Zen Plaza shopping centre for lunch, which was really very nice, and there was also a good view over Saigon as the foodcourt was on the top floor. I bought a Seiko watch as the prices were about half of the price back in Melbourne. All of the girls in the watch/jewelry section crowded around Liam and wanted to hug and kiss him. He was the main attraction once again! They gave him 2 glass beads in a pouch which he thinks are wonderful.

We returned to the hotel, and we had a message from Vietnam Airlines that our waitlisted flight home had been confirmed. I headed off to their offices while Liam and Michelle rested at the hotel. It was really enjoyable walking through the streets of Saigon, even though I was offered a cyclo ride every 5 minutes. The cyclo driver couldn't understand why I wanted to walk in 30 degree heat! I walked past the river, and had a little difficulty working out my location from the street signs and the map, but eventually found the airline. I walked back past the Opera House and Notre Dame Cathedral, as well as a number of other beautiful buildings. I passed the Palace as well and took ages to get across the roundabout with all of the traffic. It was getting darker, and I was walking down a street with what must have been a night club or huge party with thumping music and lots of people before returning onto the main streets, passing some cute girls with huge smiles who wanted to pose for a photo.

Cuong took us out for a fantastic dinner at a local Vietnamese Restaurant. We had our own little brazier on the table where we cooked marinated beef and chicken (including the head!) and sipped Saigon Beer. The menu on the wall even offered rat, but we passed on that choice. We had an early night as we are off to Cambodia very early in the morning.

Ho Chi Minh City, now it's Saigon, Now it's...

We had an early start this morning; the taxi picked us up from the hotel at 6:30 and we were off. Leaving beautiful Hoi An we returned back to Da Nang where we caught our flight to Saigon. Saigon is hot and very humid, just liek when we arrived briefly on our first day. It's a huge, bustling city, and much more westernized than the other places we had so far visited in Vietnam. There were lots of neon lights and huge advertising billboards.

We went to the Aloo Bar for lunch. A favourite of the tourists. Prices here are twice as much as elsewhere in Vietnam. We paid about $15 for lunch, and it wasn't really that nice! Saigon was meant to have the best restaurants in Vietnam, but this was the first time we had had an average meal.

We sent an e-mail at a little internet café next door to the hotel and then Michelle retired to the hotel to sleep while us boys went on a tour of the War Remnants Museum and the Binh Tai Markets.

The War Remnants Museum was similar to the War Museum in Ha Noi with a large collection of abandoned tanks, planes and unexploded ordinances. They had one of the earth shaker bombs which was of the type dropped on My Son which flattens all buildings within 100 metres, and shakes buildings up to 3.2 kms around. Inside was a collection of photos taken by journalists chronicling the war, many of them award winning photos. Also on a wall was a list of each country and the year in which they acknowledged the communist Vietnamese government. There was also a picture of the tanks crashing through the Imperial Palace gates, the Fall of Saigon. There were photos of the Tet Offensive in the Hue Citadel, as well as many accounts of people escaping the war. There was also a tribute to the many photographers, many of whom lost their lives.

Further rooms showed some of the war crimes committed by the American and South Vietnamese and other rooms showed the affects of napalm and agent orange on the jungle, mangrove and people on both sides of the war. There was also an exhibition of paintings by school kids with the theme of peace. The last exhibit was of the "tiger cages", small cells used to lock up political prisoners during their re-education, as well as a guillotine.

From the museum we caught a taxi to the Binh Tai Market. Liam was again the star, getting lots of attention from all the girls. There was a large variety of live sea life on display for sale. Soft shelled crabs, larger crabs with tied nippers. They were tied up not because they were dangerous, but because they are sold by weight and twine is cheaper than crab meat. There was a large assortment of fish in tubs, as well as shrimps and eels, which Liam got to hold.

After walking through the market we stopped at a café and tried some Lime Soda, Jelly Drink, Coconut Milk and some soft drinks. We then walked back to the hotel through the park where the older people were doing exercises and a school group practiced high jumping. Dinner at the hotel restaurant was quite average, so we will be on a mission to find some of these reported excellent restaurants during the rest of our stay.

Look what they did to My Son

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We started off at 8:30 with a trip to the My Son Cham site. The taxi ride took us about an hour travelling through the countryside beside the river and through a number of small villages. We passed a town were Cuong said it was famous for it's Thit Cho, or Dog Meat.

We arrived at the entrance to My Son, nestled in the valley and caught a minibus up to the ruins, missing out on the jeep ride. It was extremely hot and humid; it wasn't long before we were all sweating!

The first group of ruins were the most intact and we took lots of photos as usual. Liam was pursued by a group of school kids on a school trip; they all wanted to have their photo taken with him. After about 20 photos his mouth must have been hurting from smiling so much, but he was very accomodating.

The ruins further in were pretty much decimated by American bombing during the war. The Viet Cong had a base at the site and the Americans bombed the hell out of it. There are still many large bomb craters to be seen. Excavations were being carried out on the site, and a number of the temples were being restored or strengthened to prevent them for further collapse. We spent about 2 hours exploring the site and then headed back to Hoi An and the hotel for a much needed swim.

After the pool we headed into town for the tailors to have some more tops made and I went off looking for the bank. I picked up a shuttlecock from a small shop as we had seen lots of children playing with them, standing in a circle keeping the shuttlecock in the air as long as possible.

We had lunch at a riverside cafe which as usual had very nice food and a 10 year old boy there kept us entertained, playing with Liam and the shuttlecock, which ended up off the balcony and in the street, but was safely rescued. We got a lesson in shuttlecocks, as I had been ripped off paying way to much for the inferior chicken feather shuttlecock, when I should have gotten the duck feather one. Guess they saw me coming!

We walked around the town some more, and walked through the market, buying a hat and a bag to take back all of the clothes we had been buying. We had dinner across the road again in our favourite restaurant.

Hue and the Purple Citadel

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Today Cuong picked us up at 9 after we finished a buffet breakfast at the hotel. We visited the Imperial Citadel, a city built for the emperors of Vietnam. As we looked at the sacred canons, a young girl and boy approached us to participate in a survey, which was looking at understanding tourists and what could be done to improve tourism to Hue. We were happy to participate, and we took turns photographing each other.

We climbed the steps above the entrance gate to the Watchtower, which gave us views across the lotus flower filled moats to the Flag Tower. The Vietnamese Flag has flown here since 1975, but many people died in the previous years to have their flag flown from this vantage point. As we walked through the halls above the gates, past the typical bell and drum of the pagodas, some old Vietnamese woman were entranced by Liam, and insisted on having their photo taken with him. The dresses they wore were splendid and very regal looking.

From the top of the Ngo Mon Gate, sitting on top of the huge thick stone walls of the Citadel we could see the Palace inside. A lot of the Citadel was destroyed by the various wars, with a lot of damage still visible from the Tet Offensive where 15,000 soldiers were killed. Much of the Citadel has also been renovated - and it is quite beautiful. There was lots of mosaic work done with broken pottery adourning the gates.

The Right House had a lovely bonsai garden and ponds filled with fish out front. A man played melodiously on a flute as we entered. The house was filled with models of ships and royal robes and various other displays of the past.

Liam fed the fish in the various ponds throughout the citadel; the fish were huge. We continued walking through the citadel, passing into the Forbidden Purple City. Unfortunately most of the buildings here were destroyed by fire in 1947.

We passed a huge snake as it slid across the road in front of us as we walked from one old building and palace to another. The Queen's residence was sadly very run down, but restoration work on the various palaces and pagodas was continuing. A number of the walls held clear reminders of the violent past, with holes in walls where mortars had passed straight through, as well as walls pock-marked with bullet holes.

The restored portions of the citadel were magnificent, with bright blue mosaics of birds bordering gates, and lushly planted gardens.

We spent a good 3 hours walking around and exploring the citadel, finally arriving at the Nine Dynastic Urns, which are intricately decorated with flowers and birds, as well as stray bullet marks.

We walked from the citadel into town and had a fantastic lunch at Lac Thien. The owner was a deaf mute who has 7 children - the first 6 were girls and the last one a boy. He was very happy to get that boy! The food was magnificent and on the walls was the "Get Away" crew's message. Liam wrote on the wall as well, and was given a special bottle opener.

After lunch, we picked up a few antique Vietnamese and Chinese coins from Mr Coin, and headed into town, walking past many shops looking for a pair of sunglasses for Liam and a belt for myself. Liam was offered a baby to hold! We were worried he was going to drop him, as he was a pretty solid looking baby! We then walked through the market and we bought some custard apples and some mangoes. Liam was dragged off by some women at the market, who fed him some sort of sweet sugary powder, probably sugar cane. We had some free time in the afternoon, so Liam and Michelle went swimming in the hotel pool.

We went to Omar Khayyams for dinner, a really nice Indian Restaurant, but Liam was starting to feel quite sick, either from the mysterious treat given to him at the market, or from some of the pool water that he swallowed, or maybe the same bug that had affected Michelle the day before. We quickly finished our dinner, which really was very nice and rescued Liam from the toilet, walking back to the hotel were Liam spent most of the night throwing up, poor soul.

Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh, War Museums and Temples

An early rise today as we were planned on the torganised tour of Ha Noi City. Lap and the minibus driver arrived soon after breakfast, and Jean and Fred joined us again for the day. Our first stop was Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. There were lots of soldiers and numerous long queues of people standing 2 by 2 all ready to file past Ho Chi Minh in his last resting place. People ranged from young school kids on what seemed school excursions, all the way through to older folk. No cameras or mobile phones were allowed, and the security was quite strict. We thought that Fred had been hauled off by the guards, but he decided at the last second not to go through. It was very quiet and solemn inside as we all walked around and past the glass casket to see Ho Chi Minh on display against his last wishes.

Outside the crypt, we waited for Lap to catch up with us and then we visited the stilt cottage where Ho Chi Minh lived. We also saw the 108 lawn which represented all of the countries living in harmony side by side together. There were many beautiful gardens all with magnificent bonsais.

We also walked across the bridge over the lake near HCM Cottage. Ho Chi Moinh had trained the fish in the lake to come for feeding when he clapped his hands, so of course everybody was clapping their hands to get the fish to show. We certainly saw the fish, which were all quite large and very fat!.

We had a quick look around the beautiful One-Pillar Pagoda. This was very popular, with many people giving their thanks to Buddha at the top of the steep stairs.

Next stop was HCM Museum - we had a quick look around inside. It was very modern, and again there was a lot of symbolism. We bought some nice pasteries to keep us going till lunch, and then walked back through the landscaped gardens and bonsais in pots to the minibus which took us to the Army Museum.

Of course there was a lot of propaganda on show here, though I'm sure just as much as the Americans had produced. I left the place with a feeling of remorse and sorrow for what these beautiful people who I was sharing this lovely country with had so recently endured.

Needing a bit of an uplift, we then walked through the peaceful garden settings of the Temple of Literature. There were a lot of people selling pasteries and donuts on sticks as well as books and other souviners for the tourists at the gate. One lady selling the donuts was asking what was obviously quite a high price, as the locals around made sure we knew what the more realistic price was.

The Temple of Literature dated from 1070 or so, and consisted of beautiful temples divided into sections, all with grand gardens decorated with bonsais and ponds. Lap helped Liam out with lighting a prayer stick, and then back outside there was a huge drum which Lap encouraged Liam to hit. A bit of fun, but it wasn't totally appreciated by the guards with Liam geting told off; nicely of course! The architecture of the pagodas was magnificent and you could feel the history of the place. The stella with the names of all the monks who had trained at the temple lined both sides of the gardens, fashioned with the heads of turtles at the base of the carved stones.

We went for lunch at a fantastic restaurant; it was a school for underprivileged children where they were taught them skills in hospitality. The food was most simply superb, and the service and attention to detail was faultless. It was like eating like royalty, and it was lovely to sit out on the balcony in the back streets of the city in the warm afternoon.

We had done so much today, but the day was only half over! After lunch we went to the Ha Noi Hilton. Well, that's the name given to the prison; another piece of dark history.

Our afternoon was spent at the Ethnology Museum. We had an exciting trip there with the kids who had tried unsuccessfully to sell Fred a book outside the Ha Noi Hilton following us all the way across town on the back of a motorbike to continue the sell outside the Ethnology Musuem. Fred couldn't resist their perserverence! The Ethnology Museum was very interesting, and gave us a taste of the various cultures from the different regions of Vietnam, specifically up in the highlands around Sapa which we couldn't visit on this trip. The grounds around the museum were quite extensive, and consisted of representations of the various houses that the different clans lived in.

We were dropped off back at the hotel, but we wanted to explore around the lake and Ha Noi a little more so we caught a cyclo from the rank near the roundabout. I tried in vain to haggle the price down to a reasonable level, but too many tourists before me had set the expectations I guess.

We regretably just arrived at the temple on the lake at closing time, so couldnt visit inside to see the famed turtle of the returned sword. We instead walked around the lake area, talking with young children practising their English in attempts to get small coins, as well as watching a soccer match on the streets of Ha Noi. We enjoyed a lovely cappuccino by the side of Hoan Kien Lake, and popped into the Kangaroo Café (where they gave us some aptly printed T-Shirts) before we caught a taxi back to the hotel.