Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC or more commonly known as Saigon - Vietnam - Part 37

A six hour bus ride took me to Saigon – for the beginning of my first full day in this vibrant city I treated myself to a small box of cereal and carton of milk as I had not had cereal since I left the UK. Funny isn’t it that something you take so much for granted in one place becomes a luxury somewhere else – man did I enjoy that breakfast!! In fact so much so I bought more and for that day I had cereal for each meal.

Saigon is a bustling city full of energy where the French colonial architecture meets neatly with designer malls under sleek skyscrapers and dotted with incense infused allies but my interests took me to the famous War Remnants Museum that was really interesting. Saigon was pivotal for its role in the Vietnamese War and the museum gives a frightening insight in to how it was for the Vietnamese – we so often only hear about it in films usually from an American perspective. The graphic images and descriptions doesn’t make for a comfortable day out but I feel is important to learn from what happened.
From there I went in to the park where this guy insisted on cleaning and fixing my shoes; he tried and I argued; the end result being I came away with a bigger hole!
Leaving England I had never manage to acquire a taste for coffee so I was quite surprised at myself that this was beginning to change. Some cups have been bearable and some not so, as previously mentioned, however my last cup of Vietnamese coffee was probably my best. The first problem was trying to find hot coffee on a hot day but once that was done I sat down to savour it – as thick as treacle, a perfect amount of sugar and condensed milk – with all these calories if I had stayed in Vietnam much longer I may not have needed the new belt!

That afternoon I went along to the Cu Chi Tunnels – the guide had a very thick accent but described every aspect of how during the war the Vietnamese lived in the miles upon miles of tunnels, hiding from the Americans. One of the people on our tour came across a scorpion but this seemed nothing compared to the terror these people had lived in. They had lived in these tunnels, cooked in there and hid their weapons; it shows how resourceful and desperate these people were and the lengths they had to go to in order to survive. Some American and Australian soldiers were employed as tunnel rats; their job was to go down in to these underground systems to search and destroy the enemy. I can’t imagine the fear they must have felt on both sides; that of being found or those coming up against booby traps and the like in their quest for victory. The horrors of war!!!