Vietnam Trip - Day 2

After sufficient rest the night before (enough to fuel us for the next day, though I would have preferred more time to snooze).. haha.. We had our breakfast at the hotel.. simple fare, but enough to make us full... and we were all geared up for the day and coz we have quite a list of attractions to visit for the day =)

while in the cab..

Our friendly hotel recep had actually helped us booked a full day tour with Sinh Tourist (I can’t commend them enough).. haha.. coz their tours are affordable (I hope so =P, and they keep to timings very well!) Plan for the day was: Cu Chi Tunnel and City Tour~

our favourite tour guide.. haha!

I’ve heard much about Cu Chi Tunnel before I came, so I was naturally looking forward to this tour.. haha.. So after a bus journey of ard an hour, we have reached the attraction! =) The entrance is not flamboyant nor flashy, but I’m sure this place is rich with history, stories and fascinations..

We started the tour soon enough and was brought around the trail of the attraction, with our friendly tour guide showing and explaining some of the exhibits along the way.. Though half of the time, I couldn’t really catch what he was saying, it was good enough~ I understood what he was trying to convey… Sometimes, historical exhibits and images transcends languages…

can you see the spikes in this trap?

We walked and took pictures for a good half an hour.. and passed by numerous man-made traps made by the Vietnamese soldiers during wartime.. For the history of it, I shan’t dwell too deep into it here, coz I myself do not really understand how exactly the war started, reasons, resolutions, and impact….. I need to read up more.. haha..

The highlight of the trip was crawling into a tunnel, which was home to the Cu Chi people and soldiers during wartime.. and it was hilarious!!! Not because I had to crawl like a duck, but the Caucasian behind me was cursing and swearing throughout the 20-30m long crawl as it was excruciatingly painful for him to crawl like how I did.. coz he was very much bigger sized than me.. and it was challenging for someone of his size to endure this strenous activity.. HAHA! He came out all wet and had some stain marks (could be from the walls of the tunnel) on his shirt.. super funny!

See that AM behind me? Yes, it was hilarious crawling while listening to his swearings.. HAHA!

I'm such a good photographer.. not easy to take pictures in the tunnel ok~ =P

The last part of the Cu Chi tunnel adventure ended with us watching a documentary on the Vietnam war, and with our tourguide giving us an insightful and hard to understand lesson on history.. I tried my best =P

We headed back to Sinh Tourist office (our initial starting point) and had an hr break for lunch before we went back for our 2nd part of the trip, which is the city tour~ =)

We had surprisingly edible Korean food.. HAHA! But I still prefer the Korean food I always have in Singapore.. at least I could eat with ease knowing that preparation of food is at least clean..

We continued with our City tour and first stop: The much talked about War Remnants Museum.. It’s a good place to come, if you’re interested in the Vietnam war.. The attraction has many US planes displayed at it’s front courtyard, and of course, I had to take pictures with them…

Inside the building, contains a treasure trove of history, images, articles, clippings, relating to the war.. The most impressionable part would be the pictures of the victims of the war.. and pictures of deformed children and generations due to the effects of a dioxin called Agent Orange.. It was an eye-opener, educating everyone on the effects of war.. There wasn’t much pin-pointing and condemnation around the museum, which I feel is objective in a good way.. At the end of the day, we all know that war brings nothing good to mankind~ make peace ppl….

Next, we proceeded to the Reunification palace where the president used to work and live in.. haha.. quoted word for word, as explained by our tourguide.. We toured the different rooms in the building, and seen some of the elaborately furnished rooms (dining, entertaining international guests, meeting, entertainment, etc)…

Posing with the palace~

Pretty touristy with plenty of coaches...

Their meeting room for meetngs with international guests.

We saw a helicopter at the roof too!

Mr Koh meddling with the radio system..

I'm actually sitting in the president's table.. which is underground by the way.. in a room for meetings.. =)

Lastly, we visited Notre Dame Cathedral and the Post Office… It was raining cats and dogs when we arrived, but we still went down the coach to explore the area.. The design of these buildings were distinctly French as Vietnam was once under the French rule, so these buildings retained some of the French flavoured designs, which brought about a quite a nice and refreshing twist amidst the asian architecture..

Inside the cathedral~

We popped over to this Post Office, which is just beside the cathedral...

The inside of the Post Office =)

Nice westernised deco.. with clocks showing times of the various major cities in the world~

The tour ended soon after and the coach driver and tour guide nicely dropped us somewhere near Ben Thanh Market! My favourite haunt for dri-fit.. hahaha..

But then, due to wet weather, we decided to rest our legs and hide away from the rain.. at our favourite coffee joint - Highlands coffee, to have a cup of coffee + cheesecake! yummy~

We shopped around the night market and had dinner at Pho 24, one of the local noodle food joints.. haha.. quite up-market for the locals I think..

Yes, I had rice noodles again =) That's the best thing to eat when I'm sick..

After dinner, we walked around Ben Thanh Market again (coz I requested for more shopping time =P) hahaha.. poor Mr Koh..

And unfortunately, I fell sick on day 2... must be the overdose of jackfruit chips the night before and the weather in vietnam and the lack of rest the past few days, which made me so vulnerable.. I'm just weak.. tsk tsk!

I KO-ed immediately that night.. to make sure I am fit to climb out of bed on day 3... hahaha!