Saigon

Arriving in Saigon at 7 pm we had to compete against all the touts trying to tell as they have the best hotels. We thought ahead this time and had booked a room that the manager in Mui Ne recommended. Made it to the hotel in no time as it was just around the corner in district 1.

We drop off the bags and head to Good Morning Viet Nam restaurant for dinner. If this is what Italian food is like then I can't wait to get to Italy!!!! It was on the high side for price but worth every Dong!!!! Back to the hotel for an early night.

The next day we wake up and Carly has an abscess bulging in her mouth!! Straight down to the International Medical centre. Now I had always had bad thoughts about hospitals in South East Asia but I have to say, this one was good. Within 15mins Carly is in front of a doctor who with one look rang the surgeon who, we are told, will arrive in 45mins. Needless to say the treatment was spot on. and we were out of there just after midday.

While in the waiting room Carly spotted an add for a pub that was playing all the Super 14 games......so......on the way back we found this pub (Arena) and thought it rude not to stop in. I walk through the doors and my heart skipped a beat. They had the Cantabs game still running (Live) and settled down for the second half......my first game this season.....magic.

Back to the Hotel and wee booked a tour for the Cu Chi tunnels the next day. We made it back to Arena later that night to watch the Blues first win this season over the Reds........I miss rugby!!!!

The next morning and Carly is feeling a lot better. The bus picked us up for the tour. First Stop this Temple that is 120km's out of Saigon. We made it there in time for the midday service. It was cool seeing all the people file into this massive hall chatting and preying on their knees. Starting to heat up and time to leave for the tunnels.

Arriving at the tunnels we are showen this tape on the Viet Con and how they went about killing the Gi's. Interesting to see that propaganda was going full swing back in 1967!!!!

Next the guide took us through the forest to different sites. First one on how small the Viet Con entrances were!!! This guy disappeared down this hole that you would think was only big enough for a child! Amazing that they had 250km's of these tunnels in this area that stretched all the way to the Cambodian boarder!!!

After all the traps we got the option of shooting guns for $1USD/bullet. I thought I'd give it a go until I got up close and could hear how loud they were.....flag that!!!!!

INTO THE VIET CON TUNNELS....we arrive just out side this widened bunker. They guide side the tunnel runs for 40m under ground then you have a chance to get out, if you don't want to get out you can go a further 80m! He warned us not to follow any side
tunnels as we will get lost and could take a while to find us. In we go!! Luckily i had thought of bringing a torch.....Carly grabbed that as soon as I produced it!!! Thank god we had that as it was bloody dark down there!!! We went down around 6m below the surface and only had room to crawl. While down there all I could think about is "other tourists have done this", "Can't be much further". Carly stopped once in front of me but gave her a bit of encouragement and she was off again. Needless to say we only went the 40m....flag the 120m and in our group of 40 people even the bravest before going in only went 40m.

Shaken up a bit we get back on the bus. Back to Saigon and the hotel for a shower. We went out that night for a few well deserved drinks with a few of the people on the tour.

The next day is the last in Saigon and Viet Nam. We went to the markets, posted our suits to Patten and the War museum.

The museum was a bit of an eye opener. Will walking through you could see fetuses in jars that were aborted because of agent orange. American soliders holding up blowen up corpses and much more. Something you really only want to see once.

With that all said and done we are off to China. I'm at the Bangkok airport and have been for 14 hours. Our flight is soon for Beijing and the cold temps of minus 5 degrees.

I don't know if I can get onto this website in China. If I can I will post some photos etc. If not then in 10 days I will update when we land back in Thailand.