Sorry the photos are in reverse order and we cant seem to change that! So the top six are from the Cu Chi Tunnels , please dont laugh at me it was a tad scary!! Bare in mind the camera had a flash and that was the only light apart for the odd meager bulb in the tunnels!
Tight squeeze !
Tighter squeeze ! Sniper holes !
. In the war reminants museum the iconic "huey"
Night time over Saigon from the Sheriton Hotels 23rd floor.
We have arrived !
From Nha Trang we headed to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh city by sleeper bus this time. It was a night mare. The beds are not made for someone of my height or width so I could not fit in the bed in any way!! Long night with no sleep! But we got there. That was where we made our last posts from.
The city is much more metropolitan then Hanoi in the north and so felt a lot more laid back. The roads were every bit as busy but much more open with wide streets as opposed to the tight narrow ones in Hanoi.
We did the normal "city" things to begin with, long orientation walk around the city with a look in the War Relics museum. This was another harrowing experience to say the least and pushed home how utterly barbaric and pointless the war was again. Having now been here for a while I would like to get a non biased view from somewhere when we get back. I can't believe everything is as one sided as it appears to be from this side. There is quite a lot of obvious propaganda which you can ignore or take with a pinch of salt but there seems to be huge amounts of evidence that shows how bad the atrocities were. If it is true I don't know how the US has managed to get away without being pulled up for war crimes that are (or appear to be) every bit as bad as some of the things they have gone to war in the gulf for other leaders doing!!
Anyway, enough of that rant!! It's in the past now and things seem to be settling down with relations definitely being made between the countries involved.
We finished the day off with a beer on the 23rd floor terrace of the Sheraton Hotel! An excellent view of the city was had but...at $6 a beer ( and I mean small bottle!) 2 beers each, because we got there too early to watch the sun go down with just one beer, was the equivalent of half our daily budget!! Ouch!
The next day we took a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels which is where the Viet Cong hid and fought the US from. The tunnels are an amazing piece of ingenuity and had the US foiled for the majority of the war. It is arguable that it is these tunnels that made the war so long and hard for the US to defeat the VC. Each tunnel is around 2.5-4ft high and only around 1.5-2.5ft wide. The entire network stretched for around 280Km and was only about 2hrs drive from Saigon. They were built in 3 levels ranging from 4 to 8 meters below the surface. There were rooms built for living in and store rooms and conference rooms for planing and strategising. The next level was used for traveling and communication and the bottom level for escaping to if the first levels were compromised. These generally all lead to the river where the VC could escape. They also built very small surface holes with trapdoors which could be disguised easily for snipers to lay in wait in and then fire on the US from the ground. They built booby traps and even managed to tunnel under one of the main US air force bases where they ran intelligence and weapons gathering missions!! All of this was built by hand using small shovels and baskets used in the fields for farming.
We were able to go down into the tunnels and follow one for a distance of about 120m. This was plenty for all of us that went. When we came out we were drenched in sweat and our thighs were burning as we had to shuffle along on or haunches. In some areas I could not fit my shoulders through unless I went sideways! Good fun but only for a short time!! Stuff doing it with bombs going off overhead and for 3years odd! A very good experience.
I'm afraid that there are no photos at the moment that I can upload as we are in dial-up speed areas now. We have moved into Cambodia now which I will tell you about next but being here will mean that my communication will be VERY limited (possibly none at all!!) being as this is the capital and the best speed I can find is 256mbs! Sorry guys I will have to do a massive catch up in about 2 weeks time from Oz. Sucks huh?!
That in mind I'd best catch you right up to date in at least a verbal (written) fashion.
Xxx
The city is much more metropolitan then Hanoi in the north and so felt a lot more laid back. The roads were every bit as busy but much more open with wide streets as opposed to the tight narrow ones in Hanoi.
We did the normal "city" things to begin with, long orientation walk around the city with a look in the War Relics museum. This was another harrowing experience to say the least and pushed home how utterly barbaric and pointless the war was again. Having now been here for a while I would like to get a non biased view from somewhere when we get back. I can't believe everything is as one sided as it appears to be from this side. There is quite a lot of obvious propaganda which you can ignore or take with a pinch of salt but there seems to be huge amounts of evidence that shows how bad the atrocities were. If it is true I don't know how the US has managed to get away without being pulled up for war crimes that are (or appear to be) every bit as bad as some of the things they have gone to war in the gulf for other leaders doing!!
Anyway, enough of that rant!! It's in the past now and things seem to be settling down with relations definitely being made between the countries involved.
We finished the day off with a beer on the 23rd floor terrace of the Sheraton Hotel! An excellent view of the city was had but...at $6 a beer ( and I mean small bottle!) 2 beers each, because we got there too early to watch the sun go down with just one beer, was the equivalent of half our daily budget!! Ouch!
The next day we took a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels which is where the Viet Cong hid and fought the US from. The tunnels are an amazing piece of ingenuity and had the US foiled for the majority of the war. It is arguable that it is these tunnels that made the war so long and hard for the US to defeat the VC. Each tunnel is around 2.5-4ft high and only around 1.5-2.5ft wide. The entire network stretched for around 280Km and was only about 2hrs drive from Saigon. They were built in 3 levels ranging from 4 to 8 meters below the surface. There were rooms built for living in and store rooms and conference rooms for planing and strategising. The next level was used for traveling and communication and the bottom level for escaping to if the first levels were compromised. These generally all lead to the river where the VC could escape. They also built very small surface holes with trapdoors which could be disguised easily for snipers to lay in wait in and then fire on the US from the ground. They built booby traps and even managed to tunnel under one of the main US air force bases where they ran intelligence and weapons gathering missions!! All of this was built by hand using small shovels and baskets used in the fields for farming.
We were able to go down into the tunnels and follow one for a distance of about 120m. This was plenty for all of us that went. When we came out we were drenched in sweat and our thighs were burning as we had to shuffle along on or haunches. In some areas I could not fit my shoulders through unless I went sideways! Good fun but only for a short time!! Stuff doing it with bombs going off overhead and for 3years odd! A very good experience.
I'm afraid that there are no photos at the moment that I can upload as we are in dial-up speed areas now. We have moved into Cambodia now which I will tell you about next but being here will mean that my communication will be VERY limited (possibly none at all!!) being as this is the capital and the best speed I can find is 256mbs! Sorry guys I will have to do a massive catch up in about 2 weeks time from Oz. Sucks huh?!
That in mind I'd best catch you right up to date in at least a verbal (written) fashion.
Xxx
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