We arrived in Ho chi Minh city to a newer airport but the same old chaos to get your visa as usual. We somehow managed to hand the forms in through a sea of people and then proceeded to sit on the floor whilst we waited for our name to be called out in broken english. We waited 45 minutes but before we knew it we were stood outside in the humidity and sea of people.
We're staying at a fab little place that costs just £20 a night. We've stayed twice before and loved it so much we came back. Its called Xuan Mai Hotel and is 4th on Trip Advisor. The rooms are fine but it's definitely the people that make it great, especially Nang who spoilt Roman rotten again. We spent our first evening eating local food, sweating puddles in the humidity and watching life pass us by. One thing about vietnam cities is that nothing goes slow; everything moves at the fastest pace possible. My dad often thinks that John and I need to slow down, but compared to here we're going backwards! We sat and waited for dinner and heard the constant ringing of an irritating mobile phone, you know, one of the pre selected tones that a 5 year old in music class came up with! It was really starting to annoy me with its constant ringing, and I was pretty close to telling the waitress to just answer when it finally dawns on me that it's the code to say that food is ready down the street where it's cooked and our waitress runs off to collect. After dinner we head back to get to bed after all showering off all of the cities dirt and our own sweat.
We woke and John and Roman go for breakfast; I rarely make breakfast as 30 minutes more sleep is my preferred choice. We put practically every item we own into the laundry as it costs just £6 and will be ready by 5pm, and then we set off on a walking tour of the city. It;s sheer insanity but a great way to see things and lose all the water from your body. We wandered around, sat and had drinks to cool off and then let Roman loose in the park. I will give him credit, he ran round and climbed everything in sight for an hour whilst John and I sat sweating on a bench in the shade... Did you get that it's humid yet? When Roman had gone a red blotchy colour we finally managed to drag him to an air conditioned frozen yogurt place - wow did we all enjoy that! We then had to walk back to the hotel, not a particularly pleasant thought but we detoured through the main market and watched the traffic go round the roundabout that was featured on Top Gear. No wonder they spent so much time figuring out how to exit the roundabout - it was absolute madness.
So it was back to the hotel, another shower, another change of clothes and another rest from the heat before heading for dinner where as usual Roman stole the attention of all the females! We are visiting the Cu Chi tunnels today, a huge important part of Vietnams history and a major player during the war. So we sit now in our private car (£22) listening to some random Vietnamese version of Barbara Streisand watching some of the most ridiculous driving you could ever witness. If it can be picked up from a shop or warehouse it can go on a scooter, along with your family (including dog and baby.) Awards for most crazy items being carried on a scooter go to a complete wedding set up of flowers, two mattresses, and 8 cases of beer including one between the legs that had a baby sat on top of it! The winner though had to be about 60 goldfish in individual bags of water;how they were not cooked beats me but then perhaps they were and were simply on the way to a street food stall! The place is madness and the constant sound of beeping horns fills the air along with the smog. We've seen a few crashes, thankfully none serious but all painful to watch and no doubt experience. How people reach old age here I will never understand.
So we finally arrived at the Cu Chi site, each paid our £2.50 entrance fee, (Roman was free) and went to watch a video about the war. The Vietnamese obviously tell the story from their side and it is one of a nation who, when it comes down to it, out smarted their enemy. The tunnels they built were amazing, to think that every one of them was dug by hand and there are so many. We managed a 20 meter crawl underground and felt hot, claustrophobic and keen to get out. If it is your thing you can do a 1km crawl through the tunnels, a lot on your belly dragging yourself a long. I doubt they have many takers!
We spent time learning of the booby traps and how they recycled a lot of the metal acquired from the Americans. You could see huge craters from bombs dropped by the B52's and an American tank that was captured by them. We visited the kitchen and eating area and tried the main food they ate, Tapioca dipped in peanuts and sugar none of us liked it but if you had no other choice then that wouldn't really matter.
Finally we had a go at firing weapons. It was 35000 (£1) a bullet with a minimum of 10 required. We chose to shoot the AK47 and had 5 bullets each and a bucket full of tears from Roman as he wasn't allowed to have a go. It's not something you get to do everyday and I'm pretty sure I was a better shot than John!
We had a really interesting time and are glad we went to see it, it's easy to ignore these things and give them a miss but to do that is to deny a huge part of history and have no respect for the huge suffering that everyone involved incurred. So we're back in the car heading back to the city for our last night before heading to the beach. The music continues to be a random mix of old pop with Asian cheesy beats. We're currently listening to Take my Breath Away and not thinking of top gun, but rather the crazy people on the roads who's mad driving will cause their own to be taken away today.
We arrived back to Ho Chi Minh city and headed for dinner. It's a 5 hour car journey tomorrow to Mui Ne on the coast and our car leaves at 9am. 6 days by the beach, sounds perfect after the smog, dirt and craziness of the city.
Hopefully next blog will be a relaxed one, we plan to do one tour that takes in the sand dunes and lets us you slide down them on sledges, sounds fun!
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