Wednesday 19 Mar 2003
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Cu Chi Tunnels
Yesterday I went to the War Remnants Museum which was quite amazing. The grounds of the museum is littered with a assortment of US aircraft and unexploded bombs from the "American War" (as the Vietnam people call it). The museum mainly consists of collections of photographs taken during the war, but with accompanying notes that definately sum up the anti-US sentiment that the creators have!
For example there is a picture of a US marine holding up the mangled body of a Vietnam farmer and the caption underneath reads: "This soldier seems satisfied"
The museum is probably more relevant these days since the US seems to be on another imperialistic mission in Iraq any day now (Thursday possibly!) and it really shows the mad stuff that can (and will) go on when war breaks out...
Later in the evening I tried to meet the infamous MR Quan (a guy that Niamh recommended I vist) but he has been MIA for the past month and noone in the Saigon Cafe knew where he was!.. sorry Sis.. I tried!
Later on that evening, myself and Ben (one of the guys I met coming from Cambodia to Nam) headed out to Apocalypse Now a really cool bar in town, and ended up getting slightly wasted... which wasnt a good thing for getting up this morning.... ouch Disprin Disprin!!!!
Apocalypse Now is a prime haunt for prostitutes and we reckon that around 70% of the women in there were 'offering' something. I got many a complement for my physical attributes too... which was nice ;)
Rest of the night was a haze of crazy drinking and smoking ganja on the 4th storey of a building site we broke into (I slightly remember that the building workers were also there, sleeping around the place .. in the dark, but we never saw them!.. that night was mad!)
Today I went to the Cu Chi tunnels about 100 km outside Saigon. These were the tunnels used by the VC to get around (underground) without being found by the US troops. They even let you go crawling in the tunnels which is a pretty nerve wracking experience if you suffer from claustrophobia of any kind... I think I survived despite the heat down there!!
Tommorrow Im off to Dalat....