March 14 - 16
Arriving at the hostel at about 9.30pm (after far too long on planes and in airports) I met Phoebe and we went for a stroll down to the local night markets. I nibbled on rice paper rolls as we chatted and explored the stalls. We then had a drink at our hostel's rooftop bar before I passed out for the evening.
In the afternoon we set off for Cuchi, an area just outside of Ho Chi Minh used as a base in the Vietnam war. The area is most famous for its complex tunnel system. We were shown various tunnels, which ranged from 3m to 12m deep.
We crawled a couple hundred metres through one. It was already hot and humid outside, but in these tunnels it was at least 5x worse. The tunnels were pretty small too! About 120cm tall and 80cm wide. We could only get through them waddling like ducks. However, during the war the tunnels were even smaller - 60cm x 80cm.. They made them bigger purely to increase tourism.
As well as tunnels, we saw many traps used during the war. Some traps would see victims fall onto sharp rods, while others clamped or stabbed the victim, leaving them severely injured if not dead.
The final part of the Cuchi adventure was shooting a gun! Because, hey, if I'm only gonna shoot a gun once in my life... It may as well be on a Vietnamese war field! I fired five shots out towards a tiny target - and yes, I say "towards" because not one bullet hit the target. But I was close...ish...
We spent the evening at a very local restaurant - where we sat in what could only be described as "kiddie chairs" and ate pork, rice and *something unknown but delicious*
Next we're off to the Mekong Delta, but we will be back to explore more of Ho Chi Minh pretty soon!
Arriving at the hostel at about 9.30pm (after far too long on planes and in airports) I met Phoebe and we went for a stroll down to the local night markets. I nibbled on rice paper rolls as we chatted and explored the stalls. We then had a drink at our hostel's rooftop bar before I passed out for the evening.
The next day we went off exploring. We returned to the same markets as the previous evening - however during the day the stalls are indoors, and there's about a million of them. We tasted a few local treats (dried veggie chips, yum!) and I bought a cheap watch (and then took it back a few hours later for a repair..!) One of the more interesting things we spotted in the market was 'Weasel Coffee' - apparently when a weasel eats a coffee bean, the bean ferments in its stomach and it then poops it out whole! The smell was potent, and given I don't even drink regular coffee, I wasn't very keen to try it... After the markets, we had our first taste of Vietnamese street food... Banh bao: a sweet bun filed with meat and quail eggs. Not bad!
In the afternoon we set off for Cuchi, an area just outside of Ho Chi Minh used as a base in the Vietnam war. The area is most famous for its complex tunnel system. We were shown various tunnels, which ranged from 3m to 12m deep.
We crawled a couple hundred metres through one. It was already hot and humid outside, but in these tunnels it was at least 5x worse. The tunnels were pretty small too! About 120cm tall and 80cm wide. We could only get through them waddling like ducks. However, during the war the tunnels were even smaller - 60cm x 80cm.. They made them bigger purely to increase tourism.
As well as tunnels, we saw many traps used during the war. Some traps would see victims fall onto sharp rods, while others clamped or stabbed the victim, leaving them severely injured if not dead.
The final part of the Cuchi adventure was shooting a gun! Because, hey, if I'm only gonna shoot a gun once in my life... It may as well be on a Vietnamese war field! I fired five shots out towards a tiny target - and yes, I say "towards" because not one bullet hit the target. But I was close...ish...
We spent the evening at a very local restaurant - where we sat in what could only be described as "kiddie chairs" and ate pork, rice and *something unknown but delicious*
Next we're off to the Mekong Delta, but we will be back to explore more of Ho Chi Minh pretty soon!
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