Cu Chi & The Mekong

Our first day in Ho Chi Minh City we took a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels - a huge network of underground tunnels that were used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam war. We saw some of the traps used in the area during the war which was pretty gruesome- the terrible things human beings do to each other.

Abandoned tank

A tunnel entrance

We also had the chance to go into a 120m section of the tunnel. It had obviously been concreted and had some lights added, but it was still quite a scary experience. Some sections were pitch black and very narrow. Most people in our group didn't want to go into the tunnel, a couple of people even went into the entrance and then came out! So Ros and I took the opportunity to be the first ones in and we led everyone else through! We made it out, very hot and with muddy and grazed knees to show for our experience, but it gave us some idea of what life in the tunnels must have been like.

Inside the tunnel (a wide part!)

Muddy knees after we made it out!

Our tour guide for the tunnels was a bit crazy. He told us stories about when he was a cowboy near the airport growing up. He and his friends would dig up and burn the leftover bombs that the Americans buried at the airport! After the bombs had exploded they could sell the metal to the steelworks and factories.

The next day we took another trip - this time out to the Mekong Delta. We are squeezing a lot into our last few days! We took a boat trip on the Mekong and visited one of the islands where the people produce honey.  Here we sampled some honey and banana wine. We also visited a coconut candy factory, took a trip in a row boat and heard some Vietnamese music.

Holding the bees

Honey and bee pollen tea

Coconut candy mixture

Pack faster!  Pack faster!  Reminded us of our farm jobs!

Traffic jam!

The Mekong delta wasn't quite what we expected. I was expecting just rice paddies and mud with a few small villages, but in the parts we saw there were a lot of people and development, and of course many many tourists. Maybe if we'd had another day we could have travelled further into the delta and away from the crowds, but I guess we can't see everything in one trip!

The next day was our last in Vietnam. We managed to fit in a trip to the war museum in the morning. Here we saw more of what people are capable of doing to each other and the aftermath of Agent Orange. We tried not to get too depressed on our final day though! In the afternoon we flew back to Kuala Lumpur.

Last night in Vietnam

The end of the Coles sun cream :-(  We've decided to give the UK one another chance - could be some sunburn pictures coming up!

Tomorrow we will fly to Tokyo for our brief Japanese part of the trip. We are a bit sad to be leaving Vietnam but we've seen a lot in our 3 weeks here and had an excellent time.
There will also be no more luxury for us from this point...we're back to proper backpacking. We're heading to an 8 bed dorm room in Tokyo. No more fancy hotel rooms, no more nice restaurants or amazing $2 cheesecake!

Oreo Cheesecake

Torrential rain in HCMC just as we left...exactly the same as when we arrived in Hanoi 3 weeks ago!

Goodbye Vietnam

Rosie's plane photography

Mui Ne: Birthdays & Boredom

Our last stop en route to Saigon was Mui Ne. Or as we have come to know it: Sleepy Town, Vietnam. It's so quiet! It feels a bit like this town isn't quite ready for tourism yet and that we are here about 2 years too early!
Ordinarily we would like to be the first people to go somewhere but in the case of Mui Ne there's just not a whole lot to do here yet. The main excursions are to the red or white sand dunes but we've heard that they're just OK and if you've seen sand dunes before.....which we have. Unfortunately we're a bit spoilt from all our Australia travels!

There are a lot of hotels and restaurants here and many more under construction but at the moment there mostly empty and competing for the few tourists that are here.
Oh, and we were struggling to find anywhere good breakfast places open before 9am. We usually get up around 6 so we're pretty hungry by then! Our first morning we were wandering up and down the road (there's only really one road!) at 7.30 starving and getting sunburned!

Mui Ne Beach

Rosie's Dinner

Rosie entertains herself by playing in the hotel curtains!!

Our hotel here is really nice though. We have spent some time relaxing in the pool area and I've had some time to start planning the next parts of the trip. 

Amusing ourselves posing as one of the pool statues

Trip planning

One day we walked 3km along the beach (the beach here is looooong)! to where the more high end resorts are. It was a little bit more lively here than at our end of the beach and we stopped to play a game of tropical mini golf to pass a couple of hours.

I hope this is added up correctly now....!

We also had lots of time to celebrate my birthday! Thank you to everyone who sent messages and everyone who sent cards special delivery to Vietnam via Rosie!

Birthday cards all the way from England!

Birthday breakfast - I couldn't eat it all!

Mojito

From Mui Ne we took the bus to Ho Chi Minh City - it was supposed to take 4 Vietnamese hours so that means 6 hours really. In HCMC we found people and civilisation again! 

Ho Chi Minh City

  We haven't seen much during our first evening but we've had a walk around the city and the backpacker area. It seems a lot more westernised here than in Hanoi - probably if it's your first time in Vietnam it might be best to travel South to North rather than North to South to avoid some of the culture and weather shock of starting in the North...but...too late now, we don't like to do things the easy way anyway!!