Vietnam (Part 1)

Leaving Cambodia was really sad and although we managed a couple of lovely relaxing days in Sihanoukville by the beach, we could deffo have spent longer there! However, Vietnam is a country quite strict on its visa policy and we gave the date of entry as Aug 1st and so had to either be there by then or start losing days of our one month allowance. So, to Vietnam it was...

Getting through customs and the journey were really painless for once (except a 45 min wait in a mentally humid room!) and we got to Ho Chi Minh City (the former Saigon) early afternoon- just in time for a brew :)

We originally booked to stay here for 5 nights, but after falling in love with our cushy hotel and the area, we have eventually stayed for 8 nights :)

In all honesty, there hasn't been too much to do here, but we have enjoyed the relaxing and messing about because we know that on the next leg of Vietnam we have quite a lot of ground to cover in a pretty short amount of time. However, we have been up to a little bit...

It all started with a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which were fab! I'd read about them in a book I stole in Malaysia so knew how invaluable they were to the Vietnamese during the war against the US. We had a great guide for the day who explained loads of stuff about them, and we even got to crawl through some... well, we tried... Trace kinda flipped out and just couldn't get her head round why they didn't have any electric lights in them... LOL! But, they were pretty darn scary... and considering they had been enlarged slightly to about 80cm wide by 120cm high, they were still a VERY tight squeeze. And, they were very dark (the old couldn't see your hand in front of your face jobby), very hot and sticky and apparently sometimes full of mozzies or even snakes! We managed to do 30 metres out of a possible 100 metre tunnel before exiting at the first opportunity!

However, the highlight of the tunnels for me was getting to do something I had been quite excited about... firing a gun! I had heard that you got the chance to fire an AK-47 or M-16 or even some full-on automatics at the tunnel grounds... However, as we were doing our tour and I could hear other people shooting... I actually started to get quite nervous! The sound was really like nothing I'd heard (or felt before)... It's difficult to describe, but it is a powerful sound if that makes any sense....

... and as we got closer, it just got scarier, louder and more powerful...

So, I started to prepare for bottling out and talking about what a rip-off it would be (hehe)...

Then we got there and it was literally deafening every time a shot was fired from the range. The cost was $1.3 per bullet and you had to have a minimum of 5... I was ready to forget about it (not the cost, I was really, really nervous!)... but Trace wouldn't let me.... and the old male ego took over...

So, I paid and picked the AK-47... we headed to the range, with my 5 bullets in hand (which I'm sure can't be that safe for a clutz like me!!!). And, it was ace! It was really scary- I had the bullets put into the magazine by my own little personal soldier dude and he pointed me in the right direction... So, I pulled the trigger and had no idea where the shot went! It was so frickin' loud that you are deaf for a second or two after firing! Even with the mufflers on, it was scary! Then I had my second shot and started to relax a bit... and this time I could see where the bullet went... wide of the target, but not too far off... same with the third too, but I was getting the hang of it! On the fourth and fifth shots both hit the target and my little soldier dude kept telling me they were good shots! Wow! It was an amazing experience but really scary too...

As our last blog mentions, we also celebrated our first year on the road (thanks for the comments and emails!) and so knew that a drunken night would be in order! Luckily, it was also the same day as the Community Shield and we got a chance to watch United beat Chelsea... YEY!!! (Sorry Gary!) Then, we stayed at the bar, drinking, eating pizza and realised that the music being played was on a PC a bit too close to us... so, feeling leery, we grabbed the mouse and started changing the tracks being played... before you knew what was happening the bar was being bombarded by classic tracks from Alice Cooper to The Beatles! ACE! We ruled the roost... people were making requests and everything... we were right little DJ's...

Next day, we recovered and did very little... except, I finished the last Harry Potter book... wow! I was and still am so sad when I think that it is all over..... Trace is reading it at the mo, so I won't say too much.

Then, it was time to become tourists again and so we headed out the the War Remnant Museum, which had some amazing photographs from the conflicts and also some awful ones of the victims of Agent Orange.

... and that pretty much brings things up to date... we leave for Dalat tomorrow, which is supposed to be lovely and full of waterfalls and walks. So, we're looking forward to the waterfalls... :)

Oh, and a final pic just to show you that we get rain out here too sometimes... :)