Going Underground

Viet Nam had so far been quite quaint - Ha Noi was busy but still had a lot of history nestled in the streets. Other towns along the way were developed at similar levels to other places around South East Asia.

At first glance, Saigon was similar to Bangkok - a lot of Western influence - neons, fast food, big electrical showrooms etc. But a little way out of the main districts and things became far traditonally VietNamese. Nam is a huge collision of cultures with it being used on the South China Seas by many nations including the Chinese, French & English. The French are to blame for Nam being the only SE Asian country that uses a Latin alphabet for its language (handy for finding your street however).

Our first night was spent sampling the nightlife with our new German friends. This did go on a little far into the morning and made things pretty difficult for our pre-booked city tour the next morning! Nontheless, I was able to see the Presidential Palace, Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral replica during the morning. After lunch, we made it to the "Temple of the Lady" - dedicated to all things female. We then made a visit into Chinatown and saw the busy wholesale market place.

Our second evening saw us re-united with an old friend; Wes, from Thailand and a few of his friends. They took us along to a much more VietNamese drinking/eating establishment than we'd so far seen. By the time the bill came in, we'd sampled both Kangeroo and Snake meats... and eaten a LOT of their fresh peanuts not to mention hid our pitchers of beer so they had no idea how many to charge us for... at least we thought our plan was a great idea - but can you believe they saw where they were hidden?!!

The next day, we got up early to head to the Cu Chi tunnels. These are just some of the Viet Cong tunnels used in both the invasions last century by the French and US armys. These particular tunnels totalled over 250kms of hand-dug underground passageways. One of the tunnels stretches around 50kms and ends right underneath the old American warbase. A clever place to hide since they were guaranteed no bombings. We were given an insite into the people that lived in these multi-tiered tunnels. The site also showed some of the nasty maiming traps the Viet Cong used to use against their enemy. Lookubg up into the treeline was exactly like every Nam war film I've ever seen - to see some real B-52 induced craters made the situation all the more haunting (Note also, blue sky - it finally arrived!).

The moment we'd been waiting for arrived and we got to jump inside the tunnels and explore ourselves. We got to walk for over 100metres underground. Usually you could walk whilst being stooped over, but sometimes you'd have to go head or feet first through certain sections which were used to stop the Yanks with all their gear on from proceding any further. The majority of the tunnels were pitch black and so I had to feel my way round. I came out filthy but had a great time.

Alas, now it was time to depart Viet Nam for Cambodia. Although we'd made a quick trip from North to South, and despite the weather being about as good as a blunt razorblade - I have grown very fond of Viet Nam very quickly and will definitely return one day to explore some more - and hopefully appreciate it during their sunny season - if one exists. (...And after our only sunny morning of the entire stay, it rained on the way to the airport)