Saigon

After finishing the huge journey to the city we took a day off to chill out and fully relax for the first time in a while, not having a bike to ride in the near future seemed to take a weight off our minds.

The main sights in and around the city are Vietnam war related, the first that we went to see being the Cu Chi Tunnels. These are a network of underground tunnels formed by the north Vietnamese as places to live and hide from the American forces and their bombing attacks. We learnt all about the tunnels from a highly propagandist video before being shown around and moving through some reconstructed tunnels. The small diameters of the tunnels makes it really hard for a tall person to get through though I guess that isn’t such a problem for the average Vietnamese…

The mystery of the holes in my legs was also solved. I must have gone for a walk into the jungle and stumbled upon an old booby trap like this set up in the war:

The whole time you are in and around the tunnels the sound of gunfire is in the background getting louder throughout the day. At the end of the tour it was revealed why… they have a shooting range at the end of the day where you can fire leftover weapons from the war! Kind of like visiting Flanders fields and at the end of the day shooting a Mauser. Still we weren't going to turn down the opportunity and both had a go on Rambo’s gun, the M60.

Thanks to a balls up with timings for our bus and the fact it had a 3 hour lunch break I didn't make it to the war museum in town but I did get to visit the Reformation Palace. This was where the war was finally ended when north Vietnamese tanks stormed the gates in 1973. Since then most of the rooms have been untouched, left exactly as they were on the last day of the war.

To balance all of the war stuff we were seeing we treated ourselves to the best ice cream in the world, at a place called Fannys, and picked a 20 scoop sharing platter between us. The waitresses laughed at our order but 10 minutes later when we had left nothing on the plate we were sure they were impressed. 

One of the most interesting things about Saigon (that is what we were told to call it by the people in the South...) is their approach to wiring... I wouldn't want to be an electrician there!