Online in Saigon

May 24-26 Ho Chi Minh City
Saigon is a lot more busier then Hanoi, brighter, more modern and steamier. Jon preferred Hanoi, but I think I liked Saigon more.













Going for a wander one night we bumped into Hai, who was an English teacher. We got talking to him and ended up having a good ol' chat about sayings in the English language.'Whats good for the goose is good for the gander' except he says 'whats sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.''curiosity killed the cat!'He asked about words he'd read and didn't understand like 'hustle and bustle'He also liked to use the word 'vexed', such a shame we don't really use it anymore. Anyway we all got on famously so we agreed to go out for dinner the following night.He took us to a restaurant whose specialty was fish rice paper rolls. They were awesome, with pineapple and mint and beansprouts mmmmmmmm....Hai quizzed us more about English, we also helped with what he should say at a wedding and taught him more sayings.

One of the days in Saigon we took a trip out to see The Great Caodai Temple. It's the HQ of a religion unique to Vietnam, founded in the 1920s. A blend of Buddhism, Christian and Confuciousism. And they especially revere Victor Hugo, the French writer who wrote 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' .

We were lucky enought to be able to watch one of their religious services, in their fantastically decorated temple. The roof was painted with stars and dragons, the walls were pink. There were statues of Jesus, Buddha and Confuscious. There were giant all seeing eyes on the windows, and a massive globe of the world at the alter. The ceremony was a lot of singing and chanting and praying with all the female followers and normal male followers wearing white. And more important males and the priest wearing yellow, blue or red.

After lunch we visited the Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels the Viet Cong built just 20Km s from Saigon and that the Americans couldn't destroy. And would eventually help the Vietnamese to win the war.

Our guide showed us a trapdoor that led into the tunnels, hidden under leaves, and no jokes kids, it was probably smaller then the computer screen you're looking at. We were allowed to jump in or see if we could fit, and most of us could quite snugly, but one girl got stuck and couldn't pull her self out... 3 guys had to pull her out.

This was one of the few tunnels that hadn't been widened for tourists, but even those that had were tiny claustrophobic, musty smelling places.

We saw all the booby traps they used to attack their enemies, which were pretty gruesome, if grudgingly creative.

We got to eat what the soldiers were eating in the tunnels, which wasn't all that tasty.. the majority of the time it was the cassava root, which is very bland and weak tea.

It was a huge insight in to the Vietnamese side of the Vietnam War... but which they call the American War.