In which the travelers decide not to take any more tours
Gin was still feeling a little off this morning, but nothing too bad so we headed out on the trip we had booked yesterday. We had a quick breakfast and went to catch the bus. Unfortunately we got stuck right at the very back of the bus with about 2 inches of leg room and mediocre air conditioning, so the ride wasn’t so pleasant. Brightening things up was our neighbor on the bus, an interesting man who does consulting work in the field of solid waste management. Not the most glamorous job perhaps, but he was very knowledgeable and engaging, and we learned tonnes about garbage collection and landfills!
Our first stop on the trip was the CuChi tunnels. This is a huge network of tunnels that were used as a base by the Viet Cong guerrillas during the Vietnam War. During our tour of the area we saw lots of traps that the VC would have used against American and South Vietnamese troops. These traps were pretty freaky, and we certainly wouldn’t have wanted to end up in any of them. We also got to try some tapioca (which isn’t just in pudding apparently) which is what the Viet Cong would have eaten for most of their meals. It was pretty starchy and bland, but not too bad. Near the end of the tour we had a chance to fire an AK-47 if we wanted. It cost about $15 to do it, and neither of us has any interest in shooting a gun anyway, so we gave it a pass. Sadly for our eardrums we had to sit near the firing range and wait while other folks on our tour gave it a try, ouch!
The trip to the tunnels was pretty disappointing and boring. When we were in Vietnam three years ago we went to another networks of tunnels near Hue. We’d heard that the Cu Chi tunnels were even more interesting so we thought it would be worth going. However, we found the Vinh Moc tunnels near Hue better for a few reasons: we could actually go explore the tunnels, and they were used by a village, rather than just fighters, which meant they had more uses and rooms. The trip to Cu Chi focused too much on war and fighting for our taste.
After the tunnels we headed back into Ho Chi Minh City for a quick break for lunch, and then a couple of stops in town. We had some delicious subs from a street vendor for 50cents each (meanwhile some other girls on our trip had subs from a ‘French Deli’ restaurant for about $2.50 each… there’s were probably better, but not 5 times better!). Back on the bus we headed to the War Remnants Museum. There is a lot of history and photographs here, and some of it is pretty disturbing. Thinking about the Vietnam War you realize that there was really no reason for it, other that the rabid American fear of communism. Once the Americans pulled out at the end of the war and the North Vietnamese communists took over the whole country nothing really terrible happened and Vietnam seems to have done pretty well for itself through communism since then. Seeing photos of massacres of civilians and victims of Agent Orange just makes it all seem even more senseless.
We left the museum and headed to the former palace of the president of South Vietnam. This is the first place the North Vietnamese communists came when they took Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) in 1975. The palace was pretty boring, although it was fun to see the president’s movie theater and ‘gambling room.’ The most exciting thing here was seeing a bunch of Miss Universe beauty pageant contestants in their tour bus leaving the palace. They were very beautiful, and one of them waved and smiled at Ric; Gin quickly reminded him that she was all the Mrs. Universe he needed. It was while we were at the palace that we decided not to take any more organized tours, even if it is more convenient. In the future we plan to take their brochures and rip off their itineraries if necessary.
After the palace we walked to the Notre Dame cathedral and went in for a minute before we realized they were holding mass and got shooed out. It’s a pretty impressive structure, but we’re a little miffed that the tour company couldn’t bother to figure out when mass is before they brought us to a church. Beside the cathedral was the Central Post Office which we looked at briefly while we put a few postcards in the mail for Jesse and Janelle (we find postcards passe, in case you were waiting to receive one from us!)
The tour finished and we had dinner and booked a bus for tomorrow before going back to our hotel and watching a very cheesy zombie movie. We’re sick of the city, so tomorrow we’re leaving and heading to the beach at Mui Ne. We hope it’s nice there, but we probably won’t have wifi in our room anymore, so we may get behind with the blog again!
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Jon