We're now in Saigon as it was previously known and still is by many a local, tourists and us. Its new name after the American/Vietnam War is Ho Chi Minh City but nobody seems to care really. The heat is stifling and with the added bonus of traffic fumes, quite suffocating. There are million's and million's of motorbikes in the city and one or two cars, a few trucks and some busses too. This is one very busy city.
Thankfully the heat can be a little subdued by the remarkable Bia Hoi. This is the beer which is sold in small, sometimes slightly desolate, establishments. As its cheaply made and stored in big plastic containers and poured into jugs from a simple garden hose - the dent you usually have in your wallet when drinking is not even a graze in this case. We found it for 35p a litre, unbelievable! Not trying to encourage drinking kids (in the UK) but here, go for it!
Whilst enjoying the amber nectur we started talking to Samuel Emmanuelle - a very friendly chap from Angola and one who has political ambitions. He told us that he wanted to achieve social changes and how his actions could bring prosperity and happiness to his country. From what he was saying, all sounded good and he was quite alluring - we began to hang on his every word.
He told us he's in Asia doing some oil work just now, but afterwards he wants to build hospitals and schools back home. What was a little discorncerning though was the fact that this incredibly friendly man was surrounded by a lot of Nigerians - but not that disconcerning. If anyone of them had asked us there and then for our sort-code's and bank account details to help build anmenities for his people, we would happily have just handed over our wallets for the plight of the good man from Angola. If/when he does come up for election we're sure he'll win hands down;
We called him El President. He liked that and so, bought us a jug of more beer. He then said if he does become victorious and take over the realms of Angola then we're invited to come along and join in the celibrations. We await our formal invitation in the next few years. Hopefully it'll be nothing like the Last King of Scotland and hopefully he won't greet us with "Goooood afternoon madame".
Today was a very packed one. We had the Cu Chi Tunnels to visit in the morning and the War Museum in the afternoon. The visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels was quite an eye opener. Huge numbers of Vietnamese people (soldiers and civilians) lived in these tiny in height and width, but massively long tunnels. They had command centres, hospitals, munition stores, sleeping areas, kitchens and even theatres underground.
You can enter a few tunnels and hide holes but some of them were far too small to attempt (reminding us of some of the numerous bus trips we've had to endure). We entered a few tunnels ourselves and you were instantly taken aback by the humidity, heat, darkness and eeriness of it all. Lee said there was no way he could live down there and Lindsay said neither could he... far too many beasties.
After the tunnels we were taken to a shooting range where you're given the opportunity to fire some weapons that were used in the war, obviously at a cost. One English guy spent £50 on ammunition, maybe not too expensive but when he pressed the trigger, he had about 6 seconds of fun.
Lindsay, like a kid in a sweet shop, had to buy some bullets too. The tight-fisted Scotsman in him made the sensible decision to purchase cheaper bullets. Lee questioned why he wanted to have a go at all, nevermind wanting to waste £3 on mere seconds of "fun" but was met with a reply of "Hell Yeah, USA USA USA!".
Lee, who is anti guns, pondered Lindsay’s extravagant and pointless purchase for a backpacker (bullets) and to why his younger brother could justify their cost when he was trying to spend less than £3 a day on food. Lee said to himself “Trifles not rifles”.
Lindsay approached the gun stand with the look of a kid who was heading to a candyfloss stall. His bullets were taken from him and he cried and stamped his feet for all of two seconds, before the bad man who snatched them from him placed into the AK47. The kind "fairground" worker then gestured for Lindsay to approach the rifle. Lee, noticing the candyfloss look and the how it all looked fairgroundish got confused and wanted to go on the Waltzer's but unfortunately there was none.
Sunglasses down, ear muffs on and gun in hand, Lindsay chooses to use single shots rather than let the automatic function kick in. Lee is glad his brother is showing some sort of restraint and therefore is not quite a complete lunatic yet. He aims like a true pro, striking the poor metallic goat targets with great accuracy and with an almighty bang of the gun going off;
Lindsay is a proud man. Not only of his shots but how by going single shot he had outlasted the guy who spent £50 (see below). So, by his reasoning, Lindsay was very happy as he had in fact saved £47, and not really spent anything. We should note that the funds from the Gun Range are claimed to be used for the upkeep of the tunnel system;
Then it was back in to town and to see the War Museum. The museum basically consists of a few planes, tanks and armoured cars scattered about. These are ok to look at, but the real horror lies within the rooms of pictures and stories of the war. Some people may say it's slightly one-sided, it's referred to here as the American War - to put that in to context, we hardly think the Iraqi's right now call what's happening the Iraqi War. The pictures scattered everywhere show that the atrocities against the Vietnamese people can't be questioned;
Feeling sombre we left the place and after having dinner, we went to book a bus for the following day to take us to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. We don’t know what came over us (perhaps copious amounts of Bia Hoi) as somehow, we left the travel agents with a bus booked for 6.30am. This was despite there being busses every hour. Our sense of reasoning was, if we get it over and done with then we can continue drinking, and sleep the hangover away - thus, completely missing out the (what will most likely be) sweaty, clamy, hot and incredibly uncomfortable journey which will no doubt last 5 hours longer than the stated 6 hours we were quoted.
We then had a "couple" of more drinks with a Canadian couple who have stalked us everywhere we have been in Vietnam. We've sadly not got any pictures of them, possibly because they scare us (only joking, we love you Allanah and Simon). With only 5 hours until wake up time, we finally hit the sack.
We've opted to cancel the "Where the hell is Charlie?" Challenge. Sorry to anyone who would have liked to have seen that one, but the reasoning behind chickening out is as follows;
We would have got our heads kicked in. Probably stabbed. If those two things never happened then at the very least, we'd have been simply killed. Never mess with the locals, and after seeing how proud the Vietnamese are of their past and their victory during the Vietnam/American War, we weren't going to mess around with them. So, there's now a vacancy for a new substitute Challenge. Bring it on!
To increase our presence in interweb search engines, we're going to put a few words in here so that more people stumble across our little adventures. Here's some of the words we thought people would look for on things like Google or Yahoo;
Boobs, Boobies, Girls, Boys, Viagra, BBC, Sky, Naked, Rhinosouras, George Bush, Kangaroo, Bum, Australia, Funny, Hilarious, Plastic Surgery, Pancakes, Christmas, You Tube, Zimbabwe, Brittney Spears, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Mortgage, Loan, Dating, Sex, Nipples, Banana, Manchester United, Asia, Olympic Games, Iraq, Russell Brand, Towels, Cabbage, Porn and Facebook.
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