"No Honda, No Girlfriend"

Yesterday I went on a full city tour of Ho Chi Minh City, first up we went to the war remnants museum, which is 3 floors or weapons, military vehicles, photos and everything else you could think of to do with the war in Vietnam, including a photo exhibition of many children who were affected by their parents exposure to agent orange.

One of the tanks at the remnants museum

and another...I like tanks

An example of some of the weaponry they have on display

Next we set off to Chinatown to see a chinese pagoda, temple and then a chinese wholesale market. The pagoda below is well used, which is why I took no pictures inside, there was so much smoke from all the incense burning the pictures just came out hazy. The wholesale market was not very exciting, because it was mostly wholesale quantities for business there was no bargains to be had.

Chinese Pagoda from the outside

.We were taken back to the office of the the tour company for a light lunch of rice and more rice with some egg and spinich salad. The tour guide for the trip was funny, and because of his accent it made everything he said ten times funnier. He was explaining something about vietnamese courting, and explained that most guys have two motorbikes; a cheap chinese one for running errands, generally beat up and cheap. And the other motorbike is a late model expensive Honda which he uses to impress the ladies and take girls out. Then the guide said, so No honda, No girlfriend! and no one could concentrate on anything else he said for 30 seconds after that. After lunch we went to the Reunification palace (google it, its a long story about its history), where I got my photo taken next to Ho Chi Minh, or Uncle Ho as the tour guide called him.

Reunification Palace

Me and Uncle Ho

To finish off the tour we went to the post office and The Notre Dame cathedral, both built by the french during the time they ruled Vietnam, the cathedral a copy of the famous original in Paris.

The Post Office

Notre Dame From the outside

And from the inside

Along the way we got to see most of the huge central city, and a few of the big parks.

One of Ho Chi Minh City's Parks

Today I went on another tour, this time to the Co Chi tunnels about an hour and a half from central Saigon. For those who have no idea, the Co Chi province is home to an extensive underground tunnel network, totaling about 250 kilometers. They tunnels were dug and used for almost a decade while the US army carpet bombed the area daily. A section of tunnel 120 meters in length (with cop out points at 20 and 50 meters) has been widened for tourists to go through, although its been widened its not a very big space, and the further along you go the smaller it gets, at one point I could not fit through on my hands and knees, instead having to crawl.

The tour guide took this one of me as I went in the big entranceway

Just about to go into the real tunnel

On my hands and knees at this point

The tunnels were very cool, good to learn about lots about the war in Vietnam. There are hundreds of entrances to the tunnel network, and thousands more secret entrances, which have openings 30cm by 60cms.

A 'secret entrance'

After the drive back to the city centre, we got dropped off and I headed off to find some lunch, below is a bottle of the local (and cheapest beer) it costs usuall 18,000 Vietnamese dong, which is about US $1.

'Saigon green', also comes in a slightly more expensive darker 'saigon red'

I had to do something while I waited for my food!

So now I have done everything I wanted to do in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, its time to move on and I'm catching a bus north to a little beach town called Mui Ne.