Honzee / Oz Tourist

This will be brief and I’ll fill in the details tonight:
* hired a car for the day with driver for $70
* went out to Cu Chi – home of the 200km tunnels used in the war
* took a tour of the surrounding area, climbed through the tiny tunnels – not suitable for Glen-size people
* saw a bunker that a B52 bomber made when they dumped their payload trying to find the tunnels
* shot an AK47 gun – 10 rounds each for Hannah, Ben and Glen
* Glen got hit by a stray spent cartridge – small burn mark, so I can say I’ve been injured in gunfire in ‘Nam
* back to hotel and girls went searching for bargains at huge market
* Ben & Glen went in search of beer
* both parties happy with their finds
* experienced first downpour. When it rains, it rains!

Huge day and very enjoyable! learnt heaps about the war and the local people.

Day 1 is done and dusted! we’re in our hotel room about to hit the hey after a very long day of travel.

Here’s what we got up to:
* flight from Adelaide to KL was very easy. Had seats with great legroom and everything was just nice and easy
* we had a break in KL where the airport stretches over a number of terminals connected by an unmanned train (2 actually). Very impressive airport! You’d think 1 dedicated cigar shop would be enough… no siree bob! 2 is the magic number
* we then had a 2hr flight to Saigon on a half full flight. We bumped into Laura & Ben at the airport which was handy and also saw Peter Harvey, Canberra, with his crew. Anzac Day special perhaps for 60 Minutes?
* we then had the taxi ride of a lifetime through the streets of HCMC. We’ve never seen anything like it. just incredible. the scooters are just an angry swarm of bees going wherever they want at any time, fearless and impatient. The funny thing works though, it just works. It’s organized chaos and everyone understands the game
* we’ve already checked out the nearby night markets, tried one of the local brews and just soaked up the atmosphere… and intense heat

So, we’re beat. Time for a good rest. Great start to the holiday!

Well, we’re at the airport, about to board our flight (MH136) to Ho Chi Minh City via KL.

Looking forward to a very enjoyable 2 weeks touring Vietnam! We start in HCMC and work our way up to Hanoi where we fly back from.

We feel totally unorganized given our house renovations and with all the rush to get things together. The best part is – don’t have to worry about that for 2 weeks!

Looking forward to catching up with Laura & Ben at the hotel whilst the 3 of us (Hannah, Deb and myself) have a fairly lengthy flight ahead of us.

I’ll write more once we hit KL in far-too-many hours time.