© 2009 kimyfa

Good morning Viet Nam

Well you take your life in your own hands out there, not content with owning the road the moped riders take to the pavements; I am sure there must be a points system for hitting the most tourists.
Siagon appears not to sleep well its alive when I go to bed and its alive when I wake up, wired straight into the heart of the pumping Mekon. Its big real big like wow thats enormous, where it starts and stops I’m not really sure but I guess one is forgiven for thinking it stretches to the border. Its spacey though in the city, with wide tree lined boulevards even if they are filled with bustling bikes, hawkers, talkers and walkers, these I guess are due to the colonial influence of the French; at least they did something right. Most noticeable is the obvious western invasion of shops and stores, this is no communist  backwater strangled by years of war and sanctions but a maddening metropolis of Gucci, Armani, Panasonic and Sony.

Go see the Cu Chi tunnels and have  panic attack whilst 3m underground in a tunnel built for the little people, believe me its an experience that you have to do once and then like boiled cabbage agree never to try again. Go see the War Remnants Museum for lots of gruesome pictures, exhibits and a little propaganda on how bad the Yanks were; like we did not !!! From 3000 lb bombs and big guns to deformed babies in pickling jars, the exhibition of war photography on the second floor is very good and well worth seeing.
It’s also nice to see some of the old colonial buildings in amongst the high rises and want to be skyscrapers they bring a sense of history and class to the concrete jungle n a way so typically french.