No words needed here – the pics say it all.

Today we went on yet another trip!! This time to the Mighty Mekong Delta.

There’s probably not much that we can say that the pictures won’t say so much better. It really is a “mighty” river and it brings so much to the local population that is generally very poor. It brings work on the river, food, transport, renewed fertility to the soil every year and, of course, tourists and their tourist $.

However, there is one story to tell. Neil had a zip break in one of his pockets in his shorts quite some time ago. As he’s already lost one wallet it did make sense to get it repaired. Finally today we managed it. During our trip, we had stopped for lunch and some free time to explore Ben Tre, one of the many islands in the delta. Neil spotted a lady with a sewing machine at the side of the road and decided that this might be a good time to effect the repair. Great fun was in store for all concerned as we had no Vietnamese and she had no English. Through a series of signs, pointing at watches and showing money it was agreed that it would take just a few minutes to replace the zip and cost 15000D (£0.60).

One small problem, the lady needed his shorts and he had no others to wear, and as usual was not wearing any pants!! “No problem” said Neil as he disappeared to the back of the shop and a few minutes later he reappeared shorts in hand and wearing his polo shirt as a pair of shorts. Everyone burst out laughing, the lady, her husband, her mum and her son. The lady then disappeared on her bike to buy a zip and returned shortly afterwards as did a long line of locals to look at this crazy tourist sat at the side of the road wearing his shirt for shorts.

It was very funny, lots of laughs and hopefully a tourist has given some locals some revenue and a story to tell for a long time to come.

We joined an organised trip and before we went to the tunnels we visited a handicraft centre. Yes you might be thinking, this sounds like a typical “rip off “the tourist opportunity. Well, not this time. It is a centre that has been established for those people that have been born suffering from the effects of Agent Orange, to gain employment.. After more than 30 years people are still being born with defects caused by the effects of AO on the genetic structure of their grandparents and parents. Horrid deformities that, once again, make you realise just how futile and barbaric war really is.

It was very low key. They were making beautiful ornaments, plaques, bowls, vases, etc using mother of pearl and so on. What really “floated our boat” was the ingenious way that they used broken egg shells to make some fabulous stuff. Take a look at the pics which, sadly, don’t do them justice.

AO was used to defoliate millions of acres of forest so that the VC couldn’t hide or grow food. The US used Vietnam as a giant laboratory because they really didn’t know the effects of using such huge amounts of AO and other chemicals, most of which contained huge amounts of dioxins. Some of the bases used by the US to store and load these chemicals into the planes are still contaminated and waiting to be cleansed…..over 30 years after the war finished!

The tunnels of Cu Chi are about 30kms outside HCMC. Whilst some of what we saw were reconstructions for the tourist, our guide, an ex South Vietnamese working for the US, confirmed that everything had been done in keeping with how it really was when he finally saw and understood what he had been fighting against all those years ago. We did get to try a real tunnel, 1.3m high and 0.80m wide. It was very hard work, very dark in places and was a little mind blowing when you think that people lived, died, married and had children down there for months on end. I did 30m of the tunnel, to get a feel for it, then decided that my back was more important. Cheryl, being a VC in waiting, managed to go 60m.

When the VC finally sent the US home they had built around 250kms of tunnels around Cu Chi. In fact, the Americans built a huge base right on top of them not knowing they were there. It was months before they understood why they kept getting shot at night without being able to trace the VC. The ingenuity of the VC was quite outstanding:

By night, via the tunnels, they would rob the bases of the US whilst they slept. By day and night they would use what they had stolen to kill the “enemy”.

By night, they collected anything including scrap metal from bombs to recycle into there own bombs. Even going as far as collecting any UXO to recycle into their own ordinance.

When the US finally twigged what was going on they brought in dogs to sniff the VC out. What did the VC do? Collect US debris from the battle field, old clothes, cigarette packets, poo, in fact anything that smelt western. Then they laid this around the air vents and entrances into their tunnels to prevent the dogs picking up anything but friendly US scent. They also started washing with US soap that they had stolen in the dead of night so that the dogs would be put off the scent.

Sandals made of US tyres for the whole family with a nice tread in the sole to prevent slipping. But there was more, when they were returning to the tunnels after a night of guerrilla warfare they would put the sandals on back to front so the tread made the US think they had gone a different way.

This ingenious list goes on and on and it makes you realise why the US did lose the war. They thought that fire power alone would win the war. Read some of the quotes from the US Generals who probably now wish they had never opened their mouths.

Sure, this was a one sided story but it makes you realise that if your cause means so much to you then you will find a way to survive and even prosper. The Spirit of the Blitz and all that!!

An excellent day out and well worth our tourist $.

Neil writes – This for me is a boyhood dream come true. I have wanted to visit Vietnam for as long as I can remember. Maybe it was that year in geography that I studied Vietnam or, more likely, it was that my informative teenage years were blasted on the news by the Vietnam War. Whatever, today a boyhood dream came true after around 40 years.

I am so much more excited than I really expected to be, and it’s exactly as I envisaged it, manic, motorcycles everywhere, on the road, off the road, on the pavement and up your bum if you weren’t careful.

Checked into our room at Luan Vu Guesthouse. No view, no window, but then there’s no noise, a bonus in this crazy city, and no mozzies either, so all in all, ‘tis all OK. It’s very clean and pleasantly presented not as “cell Like” as you might think.

We have lots of US$ which is welcome here but you also need local currency, the Dong. So, off we trotted to the ATM and Cheryl became a millionaire in seconds, 1MD and she’s on a roll, “give me more, more, I need more millions” she kept saying. That was until I reminded her that 1MD is worth around £40!! So now she said “I want 1 billllllionnnn Dong” in that crazed Dr Evil styleeeee! 

First evening wonderful and I am still wowed by this place but Cheryl is just a little overwhelmed by it all as she has never experienced such teaming masses and constant noise since the madness of Mumbai.

Second day was spent trying to get ourselves oriented and planning a couple of trips. It’s plain that to go to the places that we want to see it’s much easier to go by organised trips and, surprisingly, they are quite cheap……. bit like the beer here, 10000 Dong (£0.45) buys you 450ml of ice cold Saigon Beer.

We also seem to have mastered the art of crossing the roads, check for a small break in the traffic, look confident, ignore the fact the traffic never stops, walk at a constant speed and keep your eyes open for the maverick motor-cyclist. That’s it, easy! Maybe a change of underwear in your bag might be a good idea!

Also today we saw 2 guys on a motor bike, one driving and one pillion. The pillion guy was actually holding a pane of glass about 4ft x 3ft in heavy trafffic……barking!

We now also possess headphones and mic so that we can seriously use Skype if anyone wants to speak to us, you can get us at… cheryl..neil ….and remember we are 7hrs ahead.

Tuesday 13^th was the anniversary of taking that call in Mumbai when Donna told me that Steve had died suddenly. We did as last year, curry and beers and a large cigar. Thoughts last night were with Donna, Zoe and Matthew who were probably going through some dreadful emotions. I think Steve would have appreciated the evenings agenda, well, apart from the cigar.

Next day we went sightseeing around HCMC. First stop was the central post office, a magnificent building constructed in the late 1800’s. There is a huge picture of ‘Uncle Ho’ beaming down on the people as they buy their stamps. Cheryl continued her obsession with cash – now she’s a multi millionaire following another visit to the cash point.

Took a look around the Reunification Palace, the former seat of government, President’s home and now a museum. Built in the 1960’s it’s the building featured in all the TV & photos taken when the south was surrendered to the tanks of the Vietcong (VC) in 1975. Somehow Neil managed to get into most of the photos I took – see if you can spot him!

Next stop was the War Remnants Museum – full of harrowing pictures and artefacts from the war and the continuing aftermath as still more children continue to suffer birth defects from the effects of Agent Orange. A sobering place and a chilling reminder of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man, under the banner of ‘war’.