Vietnam - Saigon or Ho Chi Min City 1st - 4th April

Well part of us have finally arrived in Ho Chi Min (Saigon). Fi and Grace had to stay behind in Hanoi due to both of them having infected ears so to fly would have been silly. 

The rest of us left Hanoi at 1700 for a what was meant to be a 2 hour flight to Ho Chi Min............9 hours later we arrived!!! Coming into land at Ho Chi Min was a bumpy ride to say the least and suddenly it was aborted. We concluded this as the Captain or crew told us nothing! We then flew, seat belted up and all the lights off in the cabin, for another hour with still no announcement....! 

We then landed and a local told us that we were in Phom Phenh, Cambodia.....interesting and still no announcement!!!! I was beginning to get rather British and frustrated and as we all knew where we were, as the Chinese whispers had started a pace around the plane. I asked one of the stewards if the Captain could please very kindly let us know what is going on? Eventually we were informed, a tropical storm had hit Ho Chi Min and there were 100kmh winds. We sat in the plane for a further 4 hours before we departed again for Ho Chi Min arriving just after midnight. 

 You can see some of the debris in the river

 Ho Chi Min

Spare tyre or a hundred!!!!

Bamboo trap Cu Chi Tunnels just outside Saigon - bring back memories of Burma Dad! 200km of tunnels dug by hand by the Cu Chi guerillas, caused the yanks no end of bother! 

Clara about to disappear.....a lot of sections of the tunnel were around half a metre in diameter, while others were dug just 30cm specifically to trap the far larger American soldiers. The war continued for two years once the Americans had left, with the South continuing to fight communism and the Viet Cong in the North.

Going....

 Going....

 Gone!

 You can see the size of the tunnels here....tiny!

We tasted what was their most staple food during the war - cassava (tapioca) which they boiled or steamed and then dipped in a mixture of ground peanuts, salt and sugar.

This is the end of a 20m section of the tunnel that the girls and I went along that had been made considerably larger since the war to fit the likes of me through them....it was still a very tight squeeze! I had to crawl and with my shoulders at an angle...otherwise I would still be there!!

The tunnels were truly extraordinary, covering an area of around 200 square km. Everything from their kitchens (with graduated chimneys taking the smoke several hundred metres away from the actual tunnel) to their air holes, made from hollowed out bamboo and disguised on the surface to look like termite mounds; the whole thing was quite ingenious. They only cooked in the early hours of the morning, so that any smoke which was created was disguised in the early morning mist.

Jack Fruit which grows everywhere and is quite nice to eat - very sweet and perfumey.

Saigon has a population of about 9 million and 5 million of them own a moped! check out the tourists flapping like budgies on the Zebra! They do not stop for anything and the trick is actually to keep walking and just look at them whilst crossing.......easier said than done when trying to cross a larger road with them buzzing around all over the place and from the wrong direction!

 Ready, steady.......GO!

Crossed this road neh bother!