Ho Chi Minh

Left the calmness of Hoi An yesterday for the madness of Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon). Had planned on travelling by bus until I found out it takes 15 hours! Fortunately its not expensive to fly and I got a one way ticket for  50e which only took an hour - way to go! Ho Chi Minh was described to me as "Hanoi on speed" and its true! Its a crazy place, I sat outside a cafe yesterday for ages just taking in the madness....hundreds of motorbikes zooming around in all directions, try crossing the road with this coming at you....

Its scary! the rule when crossing is 'dont stop', the only way I can manage it is to wait until the locals cross and walk with them! Majority of people use motorbikes to get around and only the very rich have cars. You can even buy trendy helmets...

Ho Chi Minh is much busier than Hanoi but I prefer it here, the atmosphere is more friendly. I didnt really like Hanoi - found the people there (especially the women) unhelpful and a bit grumpy whereas its different here. Went on a tour to the 'Cu Chi tunnels' earlier - these were used during the Vietnam war in the 1960s and at one time went all the way to the Cambodian border. People lived in these for weeks at a time! You can see how narrow they are in this photo of the tour guide ( he's really skinny) getting down in one...

They widened the entrance to some of them for 'fat western tourists' and we got chance to go into them - only went 100m and it was horrible - really clammy and claustrophobic, glad I went down though. During the war American soldiers often got stuck in them! Eventually they (the Americans) bombed the whole area.

Went to the War Remnants Museum on the way back - its very sad looking at the effects of  war especially the pictures of those born with birth defects due to their parents/grandparents being exposed to chemicals (agent orange). Children are still being born with problems today, the tour guide was telling us that his girfriend is from the area where chemicals were spread and he is very aware that it they marry and have children, their children may be born with defects. There was a few guys outside the museum selling books, I was talking to one of them, he was a young guy, had no arms, blind in one eye and had problems with one of his legs. Also in the museum, a American solder had dedicated the medals he received during the vietnam war to the museum with a note ' I am sorry - I was wrong'.

It was pouring rain all afternoon which was good as it cooled things down a bit..dont thnk this pic (taken at the museum) shows how heavy the rain was but it was lashing!

When I came back to the hotel, my room had been cleaned and the cleaner had left the windows wide open - there's a puddle on the floor, I had left most of my clothes in my rucksack on the table beside the window and everything is soaked - the joys of travelling!. At times like this I wish I had paid the extra dosh to stay in the posh hotel  but at least they will dry quickly in the heat.

Going to spend one more day here and then a day or 2 at the Mekong delta and then its time for Cambodia. Will try to get some better pictures of Ho Chi Minh - its hard though to capture how mad it is in a photo!