Ho Chi Mhin/Saigon - Vietnam

So we arrived in Saigon a couple of days ago and despite the Lonely Planet telling us it was the one place on our travels where they would rob the eye out of your head....we really like it here! We were really worried at first as the LP was full of warnings about thiefs boarding busses and riffling through baggage in the hold, pick pockets at markets, drive by scooter muggings of sunglasses off your head!!! So far the people here have been amazingly nice!!










<---Tunnel Entrance! American Tank left behind after anti tank mine ----->

Yesterday we spent the day on a history lesson expedition! We spend the first half of the day about 60 kms outside Saigon in the Cu Chi Tunnels. These are a set of underground tunnels about 200km in length which the Viet Cong (guerilla force which supported the North Vietnamese Communists during war) used as a base to launch attacks and hide out from the American bombs etc. The tunnels were built over three levels underground to store ammunition and weapons, as homes for VC fighters, kitchens, food store and as a means of getting around undetected. About 16,000 VC fighters used these tunnels during the war. They were built to be teeny tiny tunnels with even teenier entrances (entrance only about 30 cms wide) as the Vietnamese are pretty tiny and they knew that Americans were generally bigger so that if they did find the tunnells they wouldn't be able to get in or out..they'd get stuck!














<---- The tiny tunnels A plane??---->

Really interesting tour especially as our tour guide spoke certain words of English with an American accent..he kinda sounded like Adrian Krownour from 'Good Morning Vietnam'. Turns out he was an interpreter for the Americans during the war and was a Staff Sergeant in the South Vietnamese Army!













Huey the Helicopter

After visiting the tunnels we also went to see the War Museum which was also very interesting ..lots of US tanks, planes and Huey Helicopters left over from the war which were abandones when the US pulled out. Also had a great display of photos from various foreign war correspondents who died during war. The other interesting thing was an exhibition on all the people who were physically scarred from the use of various chemicals by the Americans during the war. They had photos of the people and of their children and sometimes their grandchildren all with various birth defects, scarring etc etc.













The famous photo of that little girl running away from bomb and her now --->


All in all a very interesting day.......really amazing places..My Dad (was possibly military historian in previous life!) would have loved it so took loads of pics for him!