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Viet Cong!
10:34
So the long and short of it, Vietnam is friggin' awesome! Arrived Sunday morning into Ho Chi Minh City. I met a really cool Manc at the airport (Megan), booked into a hostel (first dorm experience, love it so far!), met our roomate - a Parisian chef (Jeanne) and we all went for dinner. Had a few bevs and bed.
Monday Megan and I hit the train station to buy onward tickets to Nha Trang, a beach area to the north of Saigon. It was an epic walk, made all the more dangerous by the retards on mopeds that inhabit the city. With a population of 7 million, there are 4 million mopeds and boy does it show! Crossing the road is the biggest challenge I have yet to face, nobody obeys traffic signals, road markings or the police - it's bedlam! We booked our tickets for Wednesday lunchtime and the journey is supposed to take 7 and a half hours, I've come to learn that the Asians aren't particularly capable of keeping to train schedules so we shall see!
Pretty knackered, we went for a nap. Jeanne came in from a day trip she'd been on (quite obviously hammered! ha!). Around 8.30 I went with Frenchy to meet a guy she'd been drinking with, Ali was an IT Consultant from Nottingham. We went for what he hailed as 'the best burger is Saigon' and that if I didn't agree he'd pay for mine! Sadly it was incredible, worthy of GBK! I took my leave of the pair and head back to the hostel where Megan was still in bed! Hopped on Facebook in reception where I was acosted by too very rowdy Australians. Robbie and Kat are mental! Got Megan up and we all went out for a wicked night, I tried pressed squid! Safe to say it won't be happening again!
Today Megan and I went to Cu Chi Tunnels, the tunnels were built over 25 years and used extensively during the Vietnam war against the American's. It was pretty grim really seeing all the traps they used to maime the soldiers in the jungle, remnants of tanks and craters from B-52's! We crawled through one of the tunnels which was extremely claustrophobic but worth it, how they lived in them is beyond me...I guess I am slightly bigger than your average Viet Cong!
Dans le tunnel!
Highlight of the day by far was our chance to fire an M-16 rifle! Nosiest thing I've ever done but it was an amazing experience, scary to think people had to navigate the jungle (pre-Agent Orange), avoid the horrendous boobie traps and have these things going off all around them. Not that I agree with what they did or their motives as a Nation but I have new found respect for the American soldiers who were fighting!
Me firing the M-16
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