Saigon (HCMC)

When you think of Vietnam you think of Saigon - I have always wanted to come here and it did not disappoint!!
It is chaos, More motorbikes then people, Dicing with death trying to cross the roads, Street food every where and of course cheap beer in the street.
We found a place to stay right on one of the many main drags, Mo Ping checked us in and informs us it will be busy later due to Halloween.. We didn't even realise it was Halloween and would never had expected it to be a big thing here. Massive Street Celebrations. Children, Adults and tourists in fancy dress and traffic at almost a complete standstill. Unfortunately we forgot our camera for the busy part - and there was no way we would have made it back to our hotel through the chaos - even though it was only 20 down the street!
The tourists lined the streets drinking beer, taking photos of the locals in Halloween costumes on their motorbikes, and the locals were taking photos of the tourists on the streets. The atmosphere was great, lots of cheering, a real party atmosphere! It felt like Notting Hill Carnival but with motorbikes!

Once the chaos died down we managed to at back hotel and grab our camera to get a few pics....

The next day we wanted to do a tour of the city so no better way to do it but on the back of a motorbike... We found a couple of local guides Minh and Melong and they took us to all the cities monuments and buildings

Opera House


City Hall

Pagoda

Notre dame

Riverside


After growing up with films about the Vietnam war and hearing so much about it we decided to go to the Cu Cui tunnels 45km outside the city.
The entry to climb inside the tunnels were so small even becs would of struggled to get through

They however had a tourist size tunnel for us to climb in and experience what it must of been like

They had on show some of the raps used by the Vet Cong which were designed differently to injure the unsuspecting enemy......

The idea was to injure rather than kill: the Vet Cong thought that an injured soldier was more of a hindrance than just one man down!!

Just hanging with a few solders at base camp!!

Trying the hidden food of the forest - tree roots!!! yum yum - lovely with some crushed peanuts!

After spending most of the day on the back of a motorbike our bums were starting to get sore so it was time for a well earned beer...

Our next day we walked to the War Remnants Museum....

Along the way Terry tried his hand at a spot of Street Vending - selling cold coconuts.....

War Museum..

A few more pics..

Saigon was a crazy busy city. Terry being a city boy loved Saigon. For Becs 3 days was enough !!