Had a lazy day, slept in until 6.00am, did some writing and had breakfast of eggs, baguette and tea. Rang Raquel for her 40th birthday and then went for a walk around the inner Saigon sites. Went to the War Remnants Museum, walked past the Reunification Palace (closed Sunday) a breif look at a local soccer game, had a real cup of coffee at the Coffee Bean, walked past the Notre Dame Cathedral (closed Sunday?), The Opera House (closed Sunday?) and went in and had a look at the Art Museum.
After about 5 ½ hours walking decided to have a massage to ease the pain. It was a relaxing massage as opposed to a good hard muscle manipulating massage which we needed. Should have had a foot massage. After three weeks of Asian food, our tummies needed a rest so we went to ‘the Spotted Cow’ Bar and Café. We had a good old Aussie pie and peas and a shepherds pie. Both were good.
Monday 16th April 2012
Had breakfast, baguette and eggs of course, then joined about 30 odd people on a half day tour of the Cu Chi tunnels. (pron Coochie)These are the tunnels used by the South Vietnamese to hide from thier oppressors. (originally the French)
It is about an hour and a half to get there however at about half way we stopped to do the tourist thing at what was said to be a workshop for those affected by Agent Orange. They were either those directly affected, or the children who were effected though birth defects. There were about 50 people who made various objects from egg shells, nacre and other shiny things inlaid into timber or on stone. The artworks were beautiful. Unfortunately what we liked wouldn’t fit in the backpacks.
As we were getting back on the bus we were asked by someone if we were from Newcastle. It turns out they were a couple from Newcastle and Rebecca used to play in their sons soccer team when she was about 6. Small world.
Onto the Cu Chi Tunnels which we found very interesting and informative. The tour above ground showed a lot of booby traps and devices to kill the enemy painfully without firepower.
Then came the actual tunnel (or part thereof that they had modified for tourists) we were all able to go into if we wanted. There were a number of people decided not to go under, including the tour guide because he was the exception to the rule in Vietnam, he was fat. We both decided to give it a go. Thankfully there are ‘get out’ tunnels about every 20m. We found it difficult to duck waddle very far and it was claustrophobic to say the least. We opted out after 20m. Some opted out at 40m and 60m and quite a lot made it through. It gave us a real appreciation of what the south Vietnamese went through to survive.
When we got back into Saigon that afternoon, we got some food to take on the train, showered and took a taxi to the train. The people at Ngoc Tao Guesthouse in Saigon were great. Got to the station and met up with Lindsay and Irene from Perth. We thought we were going to be in the same compartment as them but we were in different cars.
Our roomies for the train trip from Saigon to DaNang, who we named Cu and Chi,
were two beautiful old sisters aged 80 and 85. They knew no English and we know five words of Chinese. Apparently they had been to Saigon to visit a son and grandchildren and were returning to Vihn in the north of Vietnam. We were able to get that much out of Cu’s son before he left the train after seeing them off. We had an early night, about 8pm Allan turned out the lights so they could get some much earned beauty sleep. About half an hour before that, the conductor placed a young fellow into our cabin to accompany us. Allan questioned who he was and the conductor signed that he was ‘hers’ which we took to be her boyfriend so she stuck him in with the two old ladies and the two foreigners. All the other compartments had 4 Vietnamese in them. He camped on the floor which didn’t pose any problems except when Allan went to go to the toilet in the morning. Whilst getting down from the top bunk he nearly trod on him. That train got us into Danang at about midday.
