Tue 14 Jun - Thu 14 Jul
Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand
Fri 24 - Going Deep Underground
If ever there has been a case for hearing two sides to a story then today was it. Today was the day we set off to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels that were used by the Viet Cong (local people in the south fighting for the north) during the Vietnam War. 120k of underground tunnels and rooms were made to keep the hidden from the US Forces and soldiers from South Vietnam.
Our source of all this was our guide for two days who was a veteran of the war. He fought for the South and also worked as a translator for the US forces for 9 years. The tunnels themselves were beyond belief. 100's of metres of them were left for us to see but only via crawling and squeezing through them. You can imagine my dodgy knees weren't too keen on that. Between that and the vicious booby traps they had, I certainly wouldn't like to have run into them! The Viet Cong and the North Vietnam soldiers were painted as pretty nasty guys doing wrong against everyone!
Breaking away from the story for just a few seconds, after exploring the tunnels it was gun shooting time! 5 rounds each on a M60 and an AK47! With cans for targets about 100 metres away you can imagine how chuffed I was to nail not 1 but 2 of the cans! All those years of sniper practice on computer games finally paid off!
Anyway, back to my dilemma and the other side of the story! Our next drop off was to the HCMC War museum. We had a great look round all the old planes, tanks and choppers in the grounds but inside they told their side of the story! To say the slaughter the US Forces would be an understatement. Everywhere we looked there were pictures and stories of tortures, executions and destruction! The slant on this side was very much that the Americas killed everything in front of them including women and children whilst burning down entire villages. There were whole sections dedicated to "Agent Orange". Before today I knew nothing of it but it seems the US Forces coated Vietnam in this chemical to destroy crops but in the process also destroyed entire communities!
We left the museum with two completely different sides to contemplate and definatley left me wanting to read more when I got home!
Enough of the serious stuff, we stumbled into a nice place for lunch that turned out to be silver service fish restaurant for $12 a head! Cha-Ching! Again the Scottish lads feature and laughs continued as we tried to work out what was what and get told off by the staff for doing the wrong thing! The food was great!
Tonight was the last night for the Scottish lads and Morgan and Rebecca. It was only fitting to have a night out to celebrate and see them off in style! Bouncing between 2 bars and a roof top terrace it was great to have met them all and hopefully paths will cross again one day!
To end the night on a sour point we then got fleeced by a slight of hand taxi driver! He saw the big note we had and swapped it faster than Usain Bolt out of the blocks! I was fuming with myself for letting it happen but at no point in the next 15 min stand off did we get the money back! My trust in taxi drivers was shot and we ended the night on our first bad point....an interesting day!
Photo Details
- 0:00: The last night out with some of the group! - 1.jpg [Map]
- 0:00: Can't wipe the smiles if our face on this holiday! - 2.jpg [Map]
Sent from my iPhone by My Vacation app (www.myvacationapp.com)
Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand
Fri 24 - Going Deep Underground
If ever there has been a case for hearing two sides to a story then today was it. Today was the day we set off to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels that were used by the Viet Cong (local people in the south fighting for the north) during the Vietnam War. 120k of underground tunnels and rooms were made to keep the hidden from the US Forces and soldiers from South Vietnam.
Our source of all this was our guide for two days who was a veteran of the war. He fought for the South and also worked as a translator for the US forces for 9 years. The tunnels themselves were beyond belief. 100's of metres of them were left for us to see but only via crawling and squeezing through them. You can imagine my dodgy knees weren't too keen on that. Between that and the vicious booby traps they had, I certainly wouldn't like to have run into them! The Viet Cong and the North Vietnam soldiers were painted as pretty nasty guys doing wrong against everyone!
Breaking away from the story for just a few seconds, after exploring the tunnels it was gun shooting time! 5 rounds each on a M60 and an AK47! With cans for targets about 100 metres away you can imagine how chuffed I was to nail not 1 but 2 of the cans! All those years of sniper practice on computer games finally paid off!
Anyway, back to my dilemma and the other side of the story! Our next drop off was to the HCMC War museum. We had a great look round all the old planes, tanks and choppers in the grounds but inside they told their side of the story! To say the slaughter the US Forces would be an understatement. Everywhere we looked there were pictures and stories of tortures, executions and destruction! The slant on this side was very much that the Americas killed everything in front of them including women and children whilst burning down entire villages. There were whole sections dedicated to "Agent Orange". Before today I knew nothing of it but it seems the US Forces coated Vietnam in this chemical to destroy crops but in the process also destroyed entire communities!
We left the museum with two completely different sides to contemplate and definatley left me wanting to read more when I got home!
Enough of the serious stuff, we stumbled into a nice place for lunch that turned out to be silver service fish restaurant for $12 a head! Cha-Ching! Again the Scottish lads feature and laughs continued as we tried to work out what was what and get told off by the staff for doing the wrong thing! The food was great!
Tonight was the last night for the Scottish lads and Morgan and Rebecca. It was only fitting to have a night out to celebrate and see them off in style! Bouncing between 2 bars and a roof top terrace it was great to have met them all and hopefully paths will cross again one day!
To end the night on a sour point we then got fleeced by a slight of hand taxi driver! He saw the big note we had and swapped it faster than Usain Bolt out of the blocks! I was fuming with myself for letting it happen but at no point in the next 15 min stand off did we get the money back! My trust in taxi drivers was shot and we ended the night on our first bad point....an interesting day!
Photo Details
- 0:00: The last night out with some of the group! - 1.jpg [Map]
- 0:00: Can't wipe the smiles if our face on this holiday! - 2.jpg [Map]
Sent from my iPhone by My Vacation app (www.myvacationapp.com)
Sent from my iPhone
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