Yesterday we took a bus from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. This bus ride was so much nicer than the first one we took through the Cambodian countryside on Tuesday. This particular bus seemed to have more seat room, the attendant was much friendlier, and the road was paved the entire way. It was still long, around 7 hours, but we spent an hour waiting at the border crossing as it was quite busy and only one person stamping passports and visas. We had to get off the bus with all of our luggage to get our passport stamped and then walk across the border into Vietnam. Once we crossed the border there was an instant, night/day difference between Cambodia and Vietnam. Whereas Cambodia was very much still developing with few buildings and mostly dry countryside, Vietnam appears to be much more developed with many buildings (both homes and shops) and a countryside that seems to be more cared for. Instead of a narrow two lane road with no dividing line like we saw through all of our driving in Cambodia, there was a four lane road and as we got closer to the city, an extra lane just for motor bikes in Vietnam. There are motor bikes everywhere in the city. A tour guide we had today told us that the population of Saigon is just over 8 million. There are 4 million motor bikes and only half of a million cars in the city. It is literally a sea of motorbikes on every road. Crossing the road with all of those motorbikes weaving all around each other is interesting also. We have found ourselves standing on a corner waiting for there to be a break in traffic only to realize five minutes later it's not going to happen. We have discovered you just have to go, but once you start you better keep going because the motorbikes will already be weaving around you and if you stop or try to turn around you're probably likely to get hit!
Last night after we got settled at our hotel we walked around the Ben Than Market which is a pretty large open market right near our hotel and had some Pho for dinner. Today we had a tour guide take us to the Cu Chi Tunnels a bit outside of the city. These tunnels were used by the Cu Chi guerrillas during the Vietnam War as a hideout, hospital, weapons factory and pretty much anything. It was a huge network of tunnels which were built so small that only the Vietnamese soldiers would fit in them and be able to move through them. We were able to learn about and see how they built the tunnels to be extremely camouflaged, what they used the tunnels for, and the booby traps they set to keep the enemy out. We also watched a short video which was our first experience of the strong anti-American propaganda that is used during any mention of the war. It talked about some of the famous "American-killing heroes" of the tunnels and how the tunnels aided the Viet Cong against the "fiery devils." We had the opportunity to go inside of one of the tunnels (a small section has been widened for tourists), but neither one of us opted to go too far in the pitch dark and still very, very narrow tunnel! There's also a shooting range at the site of the tunnels (hearing the gun shots in the background the whole time created an interesting atmosphere) where you can shoot guns from the Vietnam war era, such as an M16, AK47, etc. Eric chose to shoot the M60. Unfortunately, it was busy and he went through the ten bullets pretty fast and I didn't have a chance to get a very good picture. But it was all very interesting and, once again, we learned a lot.
This afternoon we went to the Revolutionary Museum and Reunification Palace. The palace was where the president of South Vietnam lived during the war and was the site of the end of the war during the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Today it's a museum and you can see the different rooms and learn about what each one was used for.
We have one more day to explore Ho Chi Minh City and one more day left of our vacation before our long trip home on Sunday. The last two weeks of traveling to places we never knew we would go has been completely amazing!! But we are also very anxious to get home to stay for the first time in over two years!!
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