Mui Ne & Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

"Fill'er up!"


The sand dunes and landscape around Mui Ne fishing village was very unique. We rented a motorcycle and explored the beaches and red sand dunes.

<-- Where's Mark??? Ya, it's not as fun in the desert.


<-- Isn't that how it always goes in the desert?

It was the closest thing we've ever seen to the desert, but very neat because plant life seemed to be able to grow out of it.
We moved from our first night to another beach side resort with a much cleaner beach. The fishermen littering in the Bay caused a lot of garbage to wash up on the inside of the Bay. Our second spot was much better, and closer to town. At night we spoiled ourselves with seafood and relaxed.

Next, we were off to Ho Chi Minh City. We spent the first day exploring and on the second we went to the CuChi Tunnels, 1.5 hrs North of the city. We have learned a lot about Vietnam's history in HCMC. The amount of dedication, the kind of tactics and the ingenuity of the VietCong (guerilla soldiers) during the Vietnam War was extraordinary. Although only one-third of the 15,000 VietCong soldiers survived they still managed to win the war.


<-- Reunification Palace, where the North Liberation Army crashed through the front gate, ending the Vietnam war and unifying the country.







<-- Helicopter landing pad on the top of the Reunification Palace. This is where the American soldiers evacuated from at the end of the war.



<-- Very old radio equipment used during the war.


One thing we hadn't realised was that the French had given the North of Vietnam to Russia after their own war with Vietnam, and it was the Russian's communism that the Americans feared (or so we have been told). The Americans worked together with the 'dictator' in Southern Vietnam to try and stop the reunification of the country for fear that if it occured, communism would spread through Asia and India, which would be 'A direct threat to American National Security'...? Though the Americans had bigger guns the VietCong won in great part due to the system of tunnels they built, over 250kms long, running under American bases and controlled territories. The tunnels had three levels and included kithens and living quarters. They were built 1.5m high by 90cm wide and rigged with traps. They also used systems of chambers and bamboo pipes to filter cooking smoke out and disguised air vent holes by using pepper and American soap to make it untraceable by dogs. Anyway, enough detail, as you can see we were very impressed, here are some pictures!


<-- This is the would-be hidden entrance to the tunnels. The VietCong were the only ones small enough to fit into them and able to find them.

<-- This is how the cooking smoke looked when it finally exited the tunnels. Hard for the enemy to see from above.

<-- Exiting the tunnel modified for tourists.

Finally, tomorrow morning, we are leaving for the Mekong Delta region to explore the Mekong river and it's small river systems that you would have seen in any and all Vietnam movies. The itinerary involves boat rides, coconut candy making, snakes, crocs, mountains, sunsets and walking through plush lands. The 3 day trip has us ending in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We'll post pics of our Mekong trip next time we're on.