Cu chi tunnels and city tour.

We leave our lovely hotel at 8.00am the drive is easy compared to normal as not much traffic on the road. Well so they say looks pretty busy to us. Anyway we get to the tunnels a whole half hour early. Mr F and I were nodding in the back of the car.
The Cu Chi tunnels are an incredible network of tunnels constructed by Vietnamese resistance fighters (Viet Cong) during the French and American wars.  As we walked around we are accompanied by the sound of gun fire AK47 to be precise.  For a large fee you can go and fire off some rounds. The noise adds to the atmosphere of the tunnels. I am interested to see the firing range but we are ushered away sharply for some reason. Ian went down a secret tunnel and then crawled along a section, too hot and claustrophobic for me. It was really interesting. Khai our guide explained everything very well. He spoke of the communist state, depending on who was around. He had very strong views on things which made sense of a lot of things we did not understand.
Saigon is a very western city, very odd for a communist country and weird to see the hammer and scycle flags lining nearly every street even in the countryside.
Any way I digress, back in the city we visit the war remnants museum. Forgot to mention at the tunnels we were shown and incredible propaganda film about the resistance fighters. They show a picture of someone and say he killed 6 American soldiers and was given the title of  American killer hero of the resistance. The war remnants museum is in the main, photographs of the war. All taken from the Vietnamese point of view as you would expect. Some of the photos are just amazing in their compositions and subject matter. Others are truly harrowing. I could not look at the Napalm and Agent Orange photos made a swift exit. Outside. There are helicopters, tanks, planes, howitzers and many other bomb and military machines.
A quick look at the post office which is still working today, a lovely building. The presidential palace we could take or leave. Getting a bit hot and tired now. Khai takes us into the town to look  at the flower displays and point out we should go the the Rex hotel roof bar. This is where the war correspondents met everyday for five o’clock forays. Great place.
City tour done, we are hungry so go to our roof bar for a quick beer and snack before we meet up with our Jayavarman buddies at the Rex. We had a fab night and had wonderful food into the bargain at a lovely local restaurant. Eating outside at Hoa Tuc set in an old Opium den.

It was sad for us all to say goodbye as we wandered off in different directions back to our hotels.

G&T's at the Rx

2019 year of the pig

Great restaurant, great food.

If you look carefully you can see the Opium Poppies carved into this screen. Gateway to the Opium den.