Tonight we went to a culture show at the Saigon Opera House. The Opera House was very small. It was a great show in the Cirque du Soleil style.

This morning we are on our way home, its been a great time. Hoi An definitely a highlight with both small city and lovely beach, best of both worlds.

The Vietnamese are lovely people, very kind, helpful and caring, they don’t ever seem to get flustered.

Today we were up early and away to the Cu Chi tunnels, we went by speed boat as it was slightly quicker than the bus and we got to look around well before all the tour buses arrived. Our guide was very knowledgeable but quite intense, he really stared at you when he was talking – quite unnerving.

Once again the photos are all out of order, here is Trev climbing into one of the tunnels, we only got to try them for size at this point, later on we had the opportunity to go in one.

A booby trap pit

We also had the opportunity to shot guns – Oh boy, they were so loud, but you could here them all the way through the bush, so it gave quite an authentic experience. Trev shot an AK47 which is what the Viet cong used and I shot a M16 which is what the Americans used. We were asked if we wanted to shot off a whole magazine of a automatic machine gun mounted on the back of a Jeep, but that was around $250USD, so we declined!

A guide showing how they got into the tunnels

These are rice paper drying on bamboo racks, all through Vietnam these are made every day, you can tell the hand made ones by the pattern on them. The ones we get in NZ are all machine made and very hard and brittle, they keep theirs wrapped in big leaves like banana leaves to keep them supple and ready to use.

There was even a sewing machine for making the viet cong uniforms. Some of the tunnels had big rooms in them for making weapons, cooking and dining, the rooves had been taken off so we could see inside.

The Vietcong sandals made from car tyres

We then had the opportunity to go into a part of the tunnels (there are over 250kms of tunnels), I went to go in, but decided it was not for me. There was another group right up behind me and I felt very uncomfortable, they had widened it slightly for westerners, but even still I backed out.

Here is Trev coming out the other end, he doesn’t look happy, he said it wasn’t a nice experience and that I had made the right decision not to go. We had the choice of doing 20, 40 or 60 metres, one lady did 60 and wanted to go further! She was Irish and not a small lady either.

This morning we took a ‘back of the bike’ tour of Ho Chi Minh city. It was exhilarating and fun, some of these photos are out of order.

Trev making Vietnamese coffee, they used condensed milk and a filter, it was very chocolatey

There were lots of these small 3-wheel delivery vehicles. I asked my guide if they buy a large item how do they get it home, she said everything can be delivered by scooter, even washing machines!! There are 13 million people in Ho Chi Minh and there are 8.5 million scooters.

We went to a market, I have no idea what these eggs are.

View from our hotel pool

Later we had a tropical storm, it was spectacular and didn’t last long

View from our room

Back to the scooter tour, our guides were skilful drivers and we didn’t feel unsafe.

Going down some very narrow alleys amongst peoples homes.

They took us to the cathedral, post office and temple.

The buses here have indicators that sound like sirens, when you are in your room you can hear them all the time, I thought they were police at first until we were out on the bikes and heard them. The buses and larger vehicles have extremely loud horns they are so loud you jump when they toot them. They toot them all the time!

This afternoon we decided to get a massage, oh my goodness, seriously nothing relaxing about a Vietnamese massage, Trev talked me into going to a place near the hotel, it was dodgy, dingy, down a back alley, I was certain that I would be bruised and sore the next day. The girls asked for a tip before we left the room and when we handed over 20,000 dong note each, they said no – obviously that wasn’t enough. So we said we would pay at reception. We gave them 100,000 dong (about NZD$6) to share – they still looked peeved. No way was I paying them more it was the most severe massage I have ever had.

We went to dinner up the tallest tower in Saigon, apologies for the quality of photos, the phone doesn’t take good night shots. They had a band at the bar that sung popular American songs, hilarious with their accents, the woman was good but the two men weren’t great, they looked the part though with their long hair and sunnies on!

Today we went on an electric scooter tour of Hoi An. We started out and went to a private home where the lady was making rice crackers, these were delicious and she makes them for restaurants, about 200 a day. They are used to eat with salad, you break the cracker into pieces, pop a bit of salad on top and eat it that way.

We went and had a look at the boats and were meant to visit a ship repair place, but it had moved. This is Trevor testing a ‘monkey’ bridge. Apparently, according to our guide, they use iron wood in making their boats and they smear buffalo poo between the joins to make it water tight and strong.

This seasame and peanuts – they grow them together, inside the pods were seasame seeds. The white seeds we mainly use are young, and the black ones are when they are mature.

We then went to a shoe making place, it was just someone’s house, and it was chaos. Both Trevor and I had been measure for and had shoes made so was interesting to see where some of the shoes are made.

We then went to a lantern making house where a husband and wife made the traditional Hoi An lanterns, but I forgot to take any photos there. Again, they soak the bamboo for making the lanterns in buffalo poo and water, this makes the bamboo very strong and last longer. One of the ladies at the cooking school told us they bury the bamboo for making houses in mud and water to strengthen it.

Then we went off to visit a local organic community garden where they grow all their vegetables for themselves and to sell at the market.

There are small pools all around the garden from which the water is taken for hand watering, although they also use sprinkler systems as this particular garden gets a government subsidy. In the pools are fish to eat the mosquitoes, and when the fish are big enough the Gardeners eat the fish. The mint they have here is lovely, with very small leaves and it is tender and tasty. They spread a mix of buffalo poo and seaweed on the beds, leave it for three days and then plant it out. So buffalo poo is very useful it seems over here!

It was so fun riding the scooters around all the little alleyways and off the beaten track from what you would normally see on a tour as well as in amongst the chaotic traffic. Our guide was young but fun and full of knowledge.

Half way around the tour, we stopped at a Vietnamese cafe and had a drink, Trev’s bike was swapped for one with a bit more power left in the battery. The owner of the cafe was a older man who collected antiques, he took us into his home to show us, they were beautifully displayed and he was very proud of them.

My scooter started losing power so I swapped with the guide and the support guy pushed him along with his foot while we were driving, hilarious we only just made it back to the depot.

It was, once again, so hot and so when we got back to the resort, a cocktail by the pool was in order.

Something to do with the moon, there was a lantern night in town that we went in to see, was really pretty with the lights and boats floating on the water.