Took a sleeper coach from Dalat to Saigon city. Leaving at midnight. Surprised at how comfortable it was. We were the only westerners on it. Perhaps they have coaches exclusively for tall tourists which have the shortest bunks. The beds on our second coach were much longer, and more comfortable. Could have got a whole family of stick insects on one bunk with room to spare.
We were told that the journey would take about 8 hours. So went to sleep....
Woken by the conductor at 5 am and told we had arrived.
In Vietnam 8 hours can mean 5 to 11 hours. Its just nice to take the mean, but a bit of a disaster for planning.
So found a café, it was closed but had seats outside, and watched the dawn break, and the rats scurrying home before full light. You would have thought they would be used to the traffic, at least one was most definitely not!! More on the traffic later.
Staying at Ms Yang's. Good location for walking to many of the museum's and other places of interest.
Couldn't have our room until 12, so dumped our sacks and went to The War Museum. Lots of stuff about the war, as you would expect. Not just the USA, but also the Indochina war against the French. In fact, basically, the whole conflict was a seamless blend from the French colonial endeavour to the 'National' interests of the USA.
Ms Yang recommended a vegetarian eating place which turned out to be a little cubbyhole with seats/tables outside, and we had a very good vegetable 'Pho', a kind of spicy noodle soup with veg, onion, and tofu. It was very good and at £1.50 for us both, a bargain.
Went to the DMZ, the demilitarised zone, to see the infamous (Cu Chi) tunnels. Out of the whole bus of about 50 people on our tour only 3 went down one of the original tunnels, guess who 2 of them were?!
You have to crawl, Yvonne frightened a bat that was trying to sleep, lol. Tunnel was about 200 metres to the next exit/entrance. It was very dark, so Mike had a little snooze!!
There is a firing range, where you can buy bullets to fire one of the type of guns used in the war, American carbine, AK type assault weapon, etc.
We didn't, but quite a few did... Mostly the Americans, lol.
Traffic is amazing, thousands of mopeds, scooters and motorbikes, and of course buses, trucks, cars and vans. Many streets are one way, if you are on a moped etc, no problem if you want to go the other way. Simply ride on the pavement and use your horn a lot as you weave through the pedestrians...
So perhaps you want to cross the road. Easy, find a zebra crossing, step on it and play chicken because nothing will stop to let you across. Just keep watch, keep walking and rely on the vehicles to dodge. It can be quite intimidating at first. Hanoi was bad enough, but Saigon takes it to another level. Shaking your folded umbrella at them has minimal effect!!
Yvonne is collecting photos of exotically loaded mopeds/motorbikes. Got one with bags and bags of goldfish on the end of poles; a mattress upright on a moped; a double bed; one laden with more bags than you could shake a stick at. And more beside.
May post a few later.
Leave Vietnam tomorrow as our visa will soon run out. Moving to Thailand. Couple of weeks island hopping.
Must say we have really enjoyed Vietnam, the people are delightful, the countryside stunning. If you get the chance to visit we are sure you will not regret it.
Leave you with some photos. Yvonne going down first tunnel; As is Mike; Yvonne in second tunnel (much bigger than the first one, here you are able to squat, and walk like a duck); Watching the traffic; Moped transporting a bed; Fancy a crisp?
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