From Hoi An our Vietnamese adventure headed five hundred and eighty miles further south, via the sleeper train, to Ho Chi Minh City (still commonly called Saigon).
The seventeen and a half hour train journey was very much the same as our last, except this time we boarded at half past eleven in the morning, spent the day on the train and watched the sun set over the rice paddies as we forged on towards our destination.
Our cabin buddies changed over during the night on this journey, so if we didn’t sleep well on the first sleeper train, we slept even less on this one. I think we’ve experienced enough of sleeper trains now!
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at half past four in the morning and instantly noticed how much warmer it was in southern Vietnam, even in the early hours of the day. We then hopped in a taxi which took us on the short drive to our hotel.
“We noticed that the city felt much more westernised than any other place we had visited in Vietnam.”
We were only staying in Ho Chi Minh City for one night so we booked a hotel with a twenty four hour reception so we could drop our bags off early in the morning whilst we headed off sightseeing. What we didn’t bank on was needing sleep after our sleeper train journey!
When we arrived at the hotel at five o’clock in the morning we were so thankful that our room was available. Despite check in being from two o’clock in the afternoon, we were shown to our room straight away and caught up on some much needed sleep.
Rather begrudgingly we forced ourselves out of bed a few hours later and headed out to book a couple of trips we had been looking into doing. First we arranged a two day trip to the Mekong Delta starting the following day and then we booked an afternoon tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels.
Walking around Ho Chi Minh City as we sorted out our bookings we noticed that the city felt much more westernised than any other place we had visited in Vietnam. With a population of around nine million people and scooters being the preferred method of travel, there were scooters lining every inch of the wide roads in the city.
We kept our determined and focussed road crossing technique, which seemed to serve us well amidst the endless city traffic that flowed around us as we walked. Thankfully there were actually some pedestrian crossings to keep us safe as well.
The area we stayed in seemed nice, our hotel was on a very narrow street off the road which meant it was nice and quiet and there was a park two minutes away that provided a nice burst of greenery in an otherwise metropolis setting.
We endured a two hour drive to the Cu Chi Tunnels site, the time taken to get there mainly due to the amount of traffic, not the distance covered.
Once there we were shown examples of the different traps the Viet Cong guerrillas used during the Vietnam War and I can say without doubt that I never want to get caught in one! There were lots of different trap mechanisms, designed in different ways but all with one common aim, to trap whoever stood in them and ensure they weren’t able to get out easily.
As we walked around the site we saw what looked like termite mounds. They were in fact fake termite mounds, built to hide ventilation holes linked down to the tunnels below ground. We also saw an old decommissioned army tank, Rich liked this one.
The underground tunnel system built around Vietnam was immense and the one hundred and twenty five miles of Cu Chi Tunnels were only one part of it. The site we visited had original tunnels which we could crawl through, however, these sections had been increased in size for western tourists to be able to access them.
We were able to shuffle around on our feet crouched down for most of the tunnel but the end section got really small and narrow and could only be passed through on all fours. I couldn’t imagine moving around or living in the tunnel system like the Viet Cong did, especially when the real tunnels were even smaller that the one we went through!
“There was no way I was going to shut myself in a pitch black hole!”
After going through the westerners entrance to the tunnel, we were shown one of the original tunnel entrances. A small rectangular hole in the ground, covered with a simple piece of wood which would have been camouflaged with leaves and dirt as the Viet Cong lowered themselves into the hole, hands above their head holding the wood to close themselves in.
Rich was happy to lower himself completely into the pitch black hole to demonstrate the tunnel entrance in full. We were told once again that the actual size of the entry point had been increased slightly to allow western tourists to experience it. There was no way I was going to shut myself in a pitch black hole but I did lower myself half way down, only just getting my western hips into the ‘larger than the original’ opening!
At the end of the tour there was an option to shoot guns at the firing range, all we had to do was buy the bullets. I’m not a fan of guns and I won’t be sad never to set hands on one in my lifetime. Rich on the other hand was very excited about experiencing the power of an M16 military gun and seized the opportunity to give it a go.
The sound at the shooting range was deafening, with guns lined up and some people shooting automatic weapons there was bang after bang after eardrum bursting bang cracking through the air. That was even with the ear protectors on.
I remember thinking that I couldn’t stand the noise, knowing that it would only have been a fraction of the noise anyone who has engaged in gun combat in war will have experienced. I just couldn’t imagine what real warfare sounds like. I hope I never have to understand it.
We had a really interesting afternoon exploring the tunnels and Rich loved firing the M16. It was a long drive back to our hotel though and with an early start the next morning we had little else to do but head to Burger King for dinner. I said Ho Chi Minh City was a westernised place!
Lambs on the loose 