Last I left off, we were leaving Mui Ne and headed to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) for New Years Eve. I feared for my life and that of others at first due to my personal problems, but they were cured by Imodium. This bus ride, although not as luxurious as the previous (no sleeping bunks) was smooth and we didn't have any gross water dripping on us. When we first arrive in Saigon, I was actually a little uneasy about the whole thing. The moment we get off the bus, we look around and see a sea of scooters flying up and down the streets. We wait for awhile in the hope that they will stop and allow us to cross but they never do. We had to turn to the local method. Just walk across and hope to god you don't get hit. Scary as all hell, but it works, and they don't even honk at you.
We decided to stay at a small hotel called the Bich Duyen. If your ever in Saigon, stay here. It was fairly cheap, and the owner/operator may have been the nicest person I have ever met.He goes above and beyond for the guests! The moment we arrived he quickly greeted us and gave us a small map of the area telling us about numerous sites to see and also signed us up for a tour the following day.
We were both really tired from the long bus ride, and decided to go grab a coffee. We found a little spot just down the road from our hotel. We ordered two coffees and we got two of the strongest thickest coffee's I've ever had. We both thought they were weird and maybe this place didn't know how to make coffee. However, this turned out to be a typical coffee in Vietnam. Sure this is seeming like a brutal story because you don't care about my coffee. I only tell this story because what we thought was just a little coffee shop, was actually a little brothel posing as a coffee shop. Shortly after we sat down, another foreign man came in, sat down by himself and was quickly joined by two ladies from the back of the place. Feeling a little awkward, we quickly finished our mud like coffee and left, not wanting to stick around and see what happened.
Both Kristin and I were still a little under the weather so we took it easy that night. We went out for a supper and had a few drinks. With a sketchy beginning to this day, and uncertain of whether I was fully over my case of the runs, I thought going easy was a good plan. It was actually a pretty relaxing night, and to my surprise, at the strike of midnight I didn't see a single firework. Not one. The Vietnamese follow the lunar calendar (Westerner's follow the solar one) and this wasn't actually NYE to them, but I still expected to see a couple fireworks. The Asian culture just loves fireworks they could have least fired a couple off.
The following day, we were up at about 7 am (told you I didn't drink much) to go visit the Cu Chi tunnels. They were created during the Vietnam war by the Vietcong and also by farmers in the region. They would hide in these underground tunnels while their area was infiltrated by the Americans and then when the Americans would least expect it, they would hop out of a hole and kill them. The tunnels were extremely small, and you had to squat down for most of it, and in some areas you had to crawl. I was a little uncomfortable being down there for about five minutes, I couldn't imagine actually living down there.
Through this experience, I gained a different perspective on the first Rambo movie. In the film, Rambo hides in the mountains somewhere in America, and is chased by the local police. He sets up all sorts of booby traps which ultimately kill most of the cops. I originally thought Rambo was a genius when he made all the traps, but in fact, these are the same booby traps made by the Vietcong and farmers to get the Americans. He was just a copycat. Our tour guide on the trip showed us with great pride all the traps that were created and how they would hurt people. Some were not even meant to kill people, but actually just shove spikes into a soldiers nuts. Like this one below:
I would have expected our tour guide to have hard feelings towards the Americans and say a lot of things about them, but he didn't. Instead, he talked about the great things that the Vietcong was able to accomplish during the war. His favorite was that they were the first people to shoot a B-52 bomber out of he sky. A feat never accomplished before because the plane flew at such a high altitude. He must have talked about this event three or four times on the trip.
Following our trip to the tunnels, we decided to visit the Vietnam War Museum to shed some more light on the events of the war. We were both shocked at all the horrible events and lasting effects on their country. Not only was their land riddled with land mines, but much of their economy was in shambles because theirs farmlands had been ruined by chemicals. The whole experience was very informative and enlightening. I actually felt slightly ignorant that I didn't know about everything that had occurred. As a result, I quickly downloaded some movies about the war when I got back home and I found it quite disturbing.
We stayed a total of two nights in Saigon and then booked a bus to a small river town called Chau Doc. Our helpful hotel owner helped us book the bus, but to get to it, we needed to go to the other side of the city. Once we arrived at the bus terminal, we quickly realised that this wasn't the normal bus stations we had been use to. This was entirely locals, and a little frightening. Not that I feared for my life, but I just felt as though this was an opportunity that I was probably going to be conned. There was an old woman who may have been 100, that looked at me ticket, yelled at me and then directed me to the other side of the terminal. My bus, well minivan, was actually right in front of me, and the old bitch was trying to make me miss it. Even the seemingly kind elder's were out to get me.
The bus ride that ensued was about 6 hours down the bumpiest roads I've ever traveled. We drove through small farming villages along the Mekong Delta and although it was a long drive it was still really exciting. I actually loved it. Well, not all of it. I kept trying to take pictures, but even with the anti-shock option turned ON on the camera, it was no use. The camera wasn't meant for these roads. I'm near useless when it comes to camera's. I'm not technologically inept. I just don't think to take any pictures, or care to take them for the most part. When I actually do take them, they usually look pretty crappy and this was just another example of that.
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