Act III: Saigon1

Alright this one will be significantly shorter, before the final and fourth act, mostly because in all of my procrastination its been a good 2 months since we got back from this trip. I don’t want to leave you all hanging there at the edge of your seats, but I do want to get this blog back up to date with more current happenings- like Santa Clause coming or something. So I’m going to wrap this trip up in the next two posts- but don’t worry, there will be plenty of photographs to look at. I know nobody actually reads what I write, but just scroll right down to the purty pictures. That’s why when I tell you that I’m secretly in love with television show Battlestar Galactica it doesn’t even matter, since you won’t ever actually read this sentence.

After returning from Halong Bay we stayed one last night/day in Hanoi. It was sad to leave our home away from home away from home, but it was time to move on. We booked a relatively cheap evening flight to Saigon after ditching the whole train/bus idea of traveling south for a few days and stopping off on the way. We had plans to make it to Cambodia on our way back to Bangkok, at time would have never permitted it if we stayed on the ground. So after stocking up on cheap DVD television series and making our last wander around the streets of Hanoi we jumped in the private car we hired to take us to the airport and boarded the flight. I got an enormous emergency exit row seat which rocked in a world of cramped cars/busses/vans/planes built for short Asians.

We touched down in Saigon, got fleeced by a taxi driver ( we are usually far more worldly than to let this happen (i.e. lived in a Asia long enough)), and found ourselves a pretty nice guesthouse recommended by none other than Lonely Planet.

The next day we explored Saigon by going to a market and walking around a good bit.We had to go to the Cambodian embassy to get our visas, so that is actually where most of the walking came from. Saigon, officially Ho Chi Minh City, seemed like a pretty nice city actually, and in some regards more organize than Hanoi (although the same number of motorbikes). You may be wondering why they changed the city’s name. Well that’s because they wanted to honor Ho Chi Minh. However, with the exception of official documents etc., everyone still calls is Saigon. So to sound like a pretension worldly traveler (as I mentioned before), I do the same as the locals and call it Saigon.

We picked up our visas with little to no problem, I think it cost us something like $30 bucks or something, plus another $5 to get it done in 15 minutes (rather than 1 day).  Its all good though, tourism is practically (and almost literally) Cambodia’s only source of income. I do think they should fill up the swimming pool as the embassy however, I wouldn’t have minded a little dip while we waited for our visas.

The next day we took a trip north to the Cu Chi Tunnels. (Click the link to get a history and some pictures) In a nut shell they are the Viet-Cong’s tunnel systems that existed about 40km north of Saigon. You may have read about these terrifying tunnels in Vietnam War novels where the soldiers must draw straws to see who has to climb in. Well I can say that the tunnels are pretty freaky and not for anyone who is slightly claustrophobic. There’s some good pictures of Timm, Ed, and Cory getting into the hole where one of the tunnel’s trap doors were- its a tight squeeze. As thwo Australian girls entered it with a squeeze they said “It’s a good thing we’re not Americans.” The Cory said “Hey, we’re Americans.” Then The Vietnam War II broke out, and all hell ensued with fists flying and mouths cursing…..OK, that part didn’t happen, but they did say that, and Cory did say that back to them. That’s all. Good Story. Moving On.

At 6’1″ it hurt pretty bad to eek my way through the tunnels, especially the pitch black ones where I could not see where I was going. It’s not like there’s a light at the end of these 1.5×1 meter tunnels that will guide you to safety- they twist, snake, and curve with no end in sight. And while I’m slightly ashamed to admit it, we told our guide we had enough before we even got to the part where you had to crawl on your stomach (they have exits about every 30 yards for the wimps). And at the risk of sounding like I’m making excuses, it was pretty painful for someone my size to crouch and try to keep up with our guide who was practically running. Guide: “OK, ready? We Go” Me: “NOOOOOOOOOO make it stop!” Guide: “OK good, we go.” Me: “I want my mommy!”

The tunnels (along with the crazy spikey jungle death traps) did however give me a weird appreciation for how Viet-Cong fought the Americans. They even recycled by taking the explosive material from dud bombs we dropped, putting it in empty soda cans American G.I.s left lying around, and turned them into booby traps. At the same time it gave me a great appreciation for American soldier who had to fight in these jungles, it was eerie enough walking around there on dirt paths, the area sweeped of booby traps and land mines. I can’t even fathom (nor really want to) what it would have been like for them.

The next day we hopped yet another bus to the beach for a few days, then back to Saigon, on to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. That’s where we will pick up for the final chapter. Till then my friends. Till then.