Vietnam part 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:
Sent: Wed 25/05/2011 10:03 AM
Subject:


Ho Chi min
Great nights sleep in an almost normal bed and the first one we have had since leaving Aus. First stop for us was to wander around to the Reunification /liberation palace. This is an impressive 1950s architecture on four levels with two basements built to withstand heavy bombing. We had an English speaking tour guide who was able to give us a brief history of the Vietnam politics prior to returning to communism at the end of the war. Basically the palace is a bit like the day it was stormed by tanks crashing through the front gates and the flag being raised on the roof top. There is a helicopter standing on the third floor launch pad a couple of tanks in the front yard and a palace that has not been used since.
From here it was a short walk to the war remnants museum. Now this place is a must visit for all people, especially world leaders thinking about committing troops to war. a great exhibition albeit a one sided Vietnamese point of view but after what they went through I think they might be entitled to their opinion. The rooms are filled with photos and stories of real people and the atrocities that were carried out. there was a great display of anti Vietnam protests and the usual military equipment. the room dedicated to the chemical warfare, particularly agent orange and the devastating effects then and still had an amazing impact on me and I found it hard to hold back the tears and felt saddened that anything like this could ever had occurred. surely the Americans need to take far more responsibility for their actions than what they currently do.

Had some time wandering around various markets and city streets constantly amazed at the traffic and the way they interact with each other on the road - might is right so the bigger your vehicle the more respect you get from others and the easier it is to just point your vehicle where you want to go and push on forward. A bus can do anything it likes including backing across an intersection, a taxi can cut across 12 lanes of bikes in less than 20 metres in order to pick up some tourists and bikes can ignore all traffic lights and cross an intersection at near normal speeds. Amongst the 4 million bikes in Saigon we have been hosted to some amazing sites. We have seen an anything up to 6 people on a bike, Television sets, washing machines, 10 milk crates full of beer, 6 metre lengths of conduit and reinforcing. you name it I reckon these guys could just about move it! They also have an uncanny ability to park their bike anywhere they like on the footpath meaning that most of the time we are walking on the road.
We decided to go to a water puppet show in the evening prior to dinner and were treated to a fantastic performance with music and great puppeteering. it's difficult to describe itself as it is probably something you he the shave to see to understand but it was certainly well done and easy to appreciate just how much effort and agility the puppeteers must have. The music was very "Vietnamese" - loud high pitched and impossible to understand but definitely part of the experience. Dinner after the show was in a street market stall, sharing tables with locals and having some of the best food even though at the time we weren't quite sure what we were ordering. The locals next to us had a great looking seafood BBQ so we asked what it was on the menu and vowed to return tomorrow night for some of that. Drinking Saigon beers at he moment as they are only 75 cents each.

Another early start to catch a half day tour out to Cu Chi tunnels. It was a full minibus with not a lot of space but it was going to have to do. Stopped along the way to break the journey at a Lacquer factory where the handicapped were employed to make the beautiful bowls, tile wall hangings etc. it was great to see the process and they were certainly doing some beautiful work but not sure how you would get the bigger pieces home so gave buying a miss for now and will reconsider in Hanoi.
The tunnels were constructed by the Vietcong people and covered over 1700 kms on three separate levels, they were incredibly small and there was no way known I was going to fit through the "real entrance hole. thankfully, they had made a couple of them slightly bigger for westerners so we were able to head on down on hands and knees to get a bit of an experience albeit very sanitised for tourists. They also had a great display of the booby-traps commissioned by the Viet Cong and this allowed you to reflect what it might have been like to walk through the jungle in the heat and humidity, not knowing where your enemy are. To add to the experience you could hear gunfire, single shots and machine guns, this was coming from a shooting range within the complex where you could purchase live ammunition and fire at some targets. We decided on 10 rounds out of the Ak47, again a great experience if you have never done it.
back home and time for a massage, relax and off to dinner along with the customary sweat replacement beer.

On the road again and ANOTHER BLOODY BUS! this time an 8 (that's right eight!) hour trip from Saigon to DaLat, amere 300kms. These trips are taking their toll on my sanity as well as my neck and back! They are painstakingly slow and whilst here is always something to see it is - same, same but different! I have discovered it's best not to look out the front window as most of your time the bus is in the middle of the road or on the wrong side of the road..... Sitting down the back can also be interesting especially when someone starts coughing, sneezing or spewing ( I hope she got her face mask off in time) and to top it all off we had a bag of bloody chooks sharing the journey on the VIP tourist bus!. I reckon if I don't get bus flue then there is a fair chance I'll get bird flue. I am definitely over busses.