That's right gang - its going to be another two part city tour post. Last weekend we flew up to Vietnam for 48 hours to check out another country. I have to say, I wasn't expecting much. We had done our research ahead of time and booked a few tours, but at best I was expecting a poor man's Bangkok, at worst, I don't even know. Wow, was I wrong. We had an AMAZING time and are already trying to decide when we can spend another weekend up there. The trip broke down into 2 pretty even parts - history and eating. So if you don't give a lick about history, but you do give a lick about food, feel free to check back tomorrow for the foodie version of the trip.
I always like having a window seat when flying into a new place because I feel like you can get a pretty good flavor for your destination just by checking out the scenery for the 10-15 minutes before you touch down. In this case, it looked like a fairly typical Asian city, sprawling, a few big buildings and in this case, what appeared to be an ancient airport. Much to our surprise, the jet bridge led us into a very clean, modern building. Which was actually kind of nice considering we took a bus from the terminal to our plane in Singapore. Getting our visa was fairly quick - we had applied for one online and the website turned out to be legit. We handed over our $90 US (which turned out to almost be the most expensive part of the trip) and away we went. Hopped into a taxi that drove down the right side of the road (thank you French Colonizers) and 20 minutes later we were having breakfast in our boutique hotel in the center of the city.
We had a tour booked that night (more to come in part 2) but nothing to do in the afternoon so we decided to walk to the War Remnants museum. The hotel offered to call us a taxi, considering it would have been about $3 it would have probably been worth it, but we wanted to check out part of the city on foot. In Ho Chi Minh City you're hit by 2 things at once every time you step outside. 1) It is hot! and this is compared to Singapore. The sweat comes automatically. 2) There are motorbikes everywhere. You can't avoid them. Everyone jokes that the best way to cross the street is to just shut your eyes and start walking as at least they'll just drive around you. Its probably 90% true, regardless, we managed to not get run over in our time there which has to be a win. Anyway, if we wouldn't have walked, we wouldn't have fallen victim to a classic tourist trap and bought some coconuts at a 500% mark-up. Luckily, they were still cheap, actually cold, and very refreshing. Kind of like a junior mint.
We walked around the War Museum for almost two hours and the entire time we felt kind of guilty - about the war and honestly for not knowing that much about it. Its almost like American History curriculum in high school for our generation hits the end of WWII and then just stops. It was interesting to hear the other side of the story and it makes you want to look for some independent information to try and figure out exactly what happened.
Skipping ahead to Saturday - we took a bus outside the city for 2 hours to the Cu Chi tunnels. This is where the Viet Cong had their elaborate network of tunnels that went for miles and miles. They ultimately ended up living below ground for many years and the set-up for parts of the tunnel system were ingenious. They used termite mounds above the ground for the ventilation shafts into the tunnels. When cooking, they funneled the smoke away from where the kitchen was and even let it out at night so as not to draw attention. Finally, the tunnels themselves were not American sized, they were Vietnamese sized. We had the opportunity to go down in one and at every 20 meters you can exit the tunnel system. I went in first and the guide in front of me was slightly hunched over and practically running. I was basically crawling on my hands and knees and got out of there as quickly as possible..... and these tunnels had been enlarged for tourists. I'm getting claustrophobic just thinking about it. Combined with the gun range they have onsite (the guns are bolted to the range we were told) so you hear gun shots echoing amongst the trees, we were OK with leaving when we did. Much respect to everyone that was there during the war, just makes me happy to be born after the fact.
The war museum and the tunnels were the extent of our journey back in time. The rest of the time in the country were spent doing what we do best...... eating and drinking! Check back tomorrow for part 2.
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