Robbed

Another day in Saigon, and we were still to decide what to do for the day. There was plenty around, but nothing was really jumping out at us, apart from the Water Puppet show (which we had heard was good, but had our reservations) and the Cu Chi Tunnels, which were used in the Vietnam War and before to move around, shelter and plan attacks against various enemies. The problem we had with the tunnels, apart from my slight claustrophobia, was that they were some 40km outside of the city. We would need to either get a minibus at 8:00am the next day or get a long and uncomfortable local bus to a stop nearby and then get a motorbike taxi for the rest of the way. And pay the man for hanging around while we were underground. Not great. So we decided that unless we could get a good trip organised with a travel agent that we would give it a miss, as neither of us absolutely desperately wanted to visit the tunnels.

After the basic breakfast on offer we headed out to see the War Remnants Museum, just round the corner. On our way there we encountered a man with his various wares for sale in two bundles each tied to an end of a stick that he carried across his shoulder. As he tried to get us to buy something or enter into a long conversation he motioned for James to try holding his wares to see how heavy it was. Although it would have made a great picture he declined, as I would have done, and we managed to dismiss him without getting too aggressive or impolite. And then we rounded the corner and found the museum.

The streets of Saigon

The War Remnants Museum contains weapons, photographs and other memorabilia from the Vietnam and Indochina wars. Once I had been short-changed by the ticket seller (and she claimed that she thought I was buying two tickets, for some reason, but I got my money back for the other ticket in the end) we wandered round the outside of the museum, in amongst all the old tanks, planes and helicopters that have long been decommissioned. James got cornered by a beggar with no arms, but managed to make up an excuse involving him needing to check with me first before he could give him anything. We got inside before we were collared again.

What a big chopper!

Inside it made for some very uncomfortable viewing. Most of it was focussed on the Vietnam war and the involvement by the US army. Whether there was a slight bias or not we couldn’t really be sure but it seemed like there was a lot of US-bashing propaganda around. I guess you can never be quite sure of the validity of the statements and photographs but some of the things in there were pretty terrible. I certainly didn’t feel hungry for lunch by the time we left.

Gas masks

As we were near to the hotel and we had a few supplies left we grabbed lunch back in the room and watched a bit of comedy on the netbooks to try and lift our spirits from the morning spent viewing some very disturbing images. It was almost mid-afternoon by the time we ventured out and we were looking at getting into Chinatown, as one of the guidebooks recommended we do so. We were also on the lookout for a Chinese travel agent who might be able to swing us a good deal on a flight from Xi’An to Kathmandu, on of the latter stages of our trip. We were using the hotel map to find our way there, and it was of little use. We never did find it, and all the travel agents seemed to be shut for Sunday, for some reason. So essentially we just had a long afternoon walk. But it meant that I could pick up some water and beer from the mini-mart we had found along the way.

"Chinatown" or as close as we could get

We found another little restaurant down the same alley as we had been down the night before, and this place was offering Saigon beer for 10,000/12,000 Vietnamese Dong on Happy Hour (around 30p) and decent enough food prices. We had also ear-marked the Sports Bar a couple of doors down to watch the Everton v Liverpool game that was kicking off at 8:30pm.

Evening entertainment

The food was OK, and the beer was tasty enough, for 30p a bottle. We had the usual hawkers coming round trying to sell us anything from guide books to marijuana, but we managed to fend them off and keep our money in our wallets. When we paid up and went to the Sports Bar we entered a small bar that had a number of ex-pats and smokers all sitting round the bar in the middle of the room. There was space for two more so we joined them. In sitting at the bar, not in smoking, obviously. With a couple more Saigons on the go we waited for kick-off and tried not to get into any kind of conversation with the ruffians frequenting the bar. The game was a bit of a disappointment, mainly because Liverpool should have won 3-2 but due to Everton bribing the referees assistant (allegedly) it remained at 2-2. As it was getting late, and the Chelsea v Man U game would be kicking off soon (which we would be able to watch from the comfort of the hotel room, without having smoke blown in our faces) we made our way back through the crazy streets of Saigon and cracked open a couple of cans of 333.

Unhappy with the 2 - 2 result...