After the calm and relaxation of Mui Ne we headed towards Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The uncomfortable five hour overnight bus only allowed us about two hours sleep and as we stumbled off the bus, half asleep at 5am in the dark, we were met by the usual crowd of taxi and motorbike taxi drivers encircling us and insisting that they drive us to our hostel. I have experienced this many times in Asia and I'm certain that the overwhelming scenario is a sales tactic to dupe dazed tourists into deals they would otherwise avoid. I'd been warned that scams are rife amongst HCMC drivers and this was further reason to perform my usual ritual of moving away from the crowd and taking a minute to get my bearings; being dropped off at a recognisable bus station is rare and in this case we'd been dumped on the side of an unknown road so we were unable to locate our hostel without WiFi and GPS and we eventually had to agree to get in a taxi as we had no other choice. The taxi ended up driving us in round in a perfect circle and when he stopped we realised we could have easily walked, as we pointed this out to him he suddenly became aggressive and began shouting at us to get out whilst chucking our bags into the traffic! Not ideal at 5am in the morning! The screaming continued as we hurriedly got out, scraped our bags off the street and the taxi screeched off into the night. Shocked and shaken up we checked our bags and at that point I realised that in the commotion my iPhone had fallen out!!! I relied on that phone for a lot of things during this trip and I've been extremely careful with my stuff to the point of paranoia so I was horrendously annoyed that I'd lost it (I did everything I could to recover it including pacing up and down the street where we were dropped off for an hour trying to find the driver). Putting my acute frustration aside I was thankful that it wasn't my passport I'd lost. We slept in the hostel communal area until check in time and spent the day getting lost amongst the smorgasbord of noises and colour that define HCMC before going to the cinema. The southern city is somewhat more modern than Vietnam's capital Hanoi and this is evident in the abundance of luxury hotels, brand new motor bikes and flashy iPhones (perhaps one of them is my lost phone?!) however the hectic traffic still prevails so that every time you cross a street you say a little prayer in the hope you'll make it to the other side alive.
We took a 9p bus to a water park in a built up area of the city. We were amongst the vast minority of tourists there whilst Vietnamese families were still celebrating the tail-end of Tet.
The following morning was Evie's last day and we'd only had a couple of hours sleep when we awoke early to fit as much in to her last morning as possible. We started off visiting the tunnels of Cu Chi where war guerrillas from the north of Vietnam hid from the Americans during the conflict over 40 years ago; the tunnels were dark, humid, full of mosquitoes and absolutely tiny, not only because they were 'Asian size' but also the fighters were small due to malnourishment and Vitamin D deficiencies after spending so long underground. We learnt about their cunning tactics such as wearing their shoes backwards to give the appearance that their footsteps were going in the opposite direction, pits filled with metal spikes covered with bamboo and breathing holes in the tunnels disguised as ant hills. Following this we visited the war museum which, although extremely biased due to propaganda, was a massive eye opener into the horrifying circumstances of the American/Vietnam war. The photos depicted murdered families and deformed children due to Agent Orange chemicals that were dropped by the Americans to kill crops.
We crawled along the underground tunnels for over 150 metres.
It was time to say goodbye to my friend Evie. When you decide to spend 24/7 with someone for two months it's hardly surprising that you form friendships as deep as if you'd known each other for a decade, also when you live through the highs a lows of travelling through Asia with someone you become very close; in short I will miss her a lot! I am now a bonafide solo female traveller again ready to conquer the world!
So far this post has been ever so serious so I'll end in on a light note; as you may know I've made it my mission to try as much food - that the western world would deem 'strange' - as possible so, along with my friends Sam and Kieran who we've been bumping into all over Vietnam (very common considering the long and thin shape of the country, everyone is following a similar route either up or down), I went to a Vietnamese restaurant and tried bull penis and testicles!
Spice stall at a local market.
We took a 9p bus to a water park in a built up area of the city. We were amongst the vast minority of tourists there whilst Vietnamese families were still celebrating the tail-end of Tet.
Dancing with the locals in a Vietnamese club.
A rare quiet street in HCMC (check out the bundles of cables).
The following morning was Evie's last day and we'd only had a couple of hours sleep when we awoke early to fit as much in to her last morning as possible. We started off visiting the tunnels of Cu Chi where war guerrillas from the north of Vietnam hid from the Americans during the conflict over 40 years ago; the tunnels were dark, humid, full of mosquitoes and absolutely tiny, not only because they were 'Asian size' but also the fighters were small due to malnourishment and Vitamin D deficiencies after spending so long underground. We learnt about their cunning tactics such as wearing their shoes backwards to give the appearance that their footsteps were going in the opposite direction, pits filled with metal spikes covered with bamboo and breathing holes in the tunnels disguised as ant hills. Following this we visited the war museum which, although extremely biased due to propaganda, was a massive eye opener into the horrifying circumstances of the American/Vietnam war. The photos depicted murdered families and deformed children due to Agent Orange chemicals that were dropped by the Americans to kill crops.
This is one of the original concealed entrances to the tunnels that apparently has been made bigger(!!!) for westerners (it was still tiny).
We crawled along the underground tunnels for over 150 metres.
This photo from the museum depicts American GIs proudly posing with the dismembered heads of Vietnamese men.
It was time to say goodbye to my friend Evie. When you decide to spend 24/7 with someone for two months it's hardly surprising that you form friendships as deep as if you'd known each other for a decade, also when you live through the highs a lows of travelling through Asia with someone you become very close; in short I will miss her a lot! I am now a bonafide solo female traveller again ready to conquer the world!
So far this post has been ever so serious so I'll end in on a light note; as you may know I've made it my mission to try as much food - that the western world would deem 'strange' - as possible so, along with my friends Sam and Kieran who we've been bumping into all over Vietnam (very common considering the long and thin shape of the country, everyone is following a similar route either up or down), I went to a Vietnamese restaurant and tried bull penis and testicles!
Spice stall at a local market.
We didn't want to commit to the bull penis as a main meal so we ordered a DIY table BBQ as well.
The bull body parts were served chopped up in a lump inside a cauldron full of soup - does this sound appetising to you??! No?!
That last photo made me gag!!....soup will never be the same again!...x
ReplyDeleteWhat did it taste like then??x
ReplyDeleteSpongy beef!!!!!
ReplyDelete