When we arrived home this evening I checked on a patch on my back that I thought had been a bit of a burn from my hot rocks massage. It has had a lot of small blisters on it. I also had a couple of what I thought were itchy bites below my arm pit. To my horror I found that there were more and they weren't itchy bites. Aaggghhhhh! Scabies was my original thought. I made Lance get redressed and come with me down the road to the pharmacy but it was closed. I put betadine antiseptic on them and covered them. All night I felt as if a million small mites were crawling all over me.
Our baggage loaded onto a truck we taxied to a bus just down the road that took us back to Danang to the Airport. Danang is where we stopped at China beach and you may recall that there was nobody there when we stopped in the middle of the day. Five in the morning was a different story, the beach was teaming with people and the water was like Blackpool on a rare hot day. (I've never been to Blackpool but imagination is a great thing). Hung told us that the Vietnamese don't like to have brown skin, so do their swimming in the morning before the sun is too strong. All along the streets were people exercising, thai chi sort of things, aerobics, jogging, press ups etc. it was so busy for such a time, pre 6am.
Arriving at the airport and lining up for our boarding passes as a group we were asked if anyone would like to pay for extra leg room. Nah, it's only a 1 hour flight. But then we saw the price sign that she was holding up, 60.000 dong, which equates to $3 US. My hand was up like lightening! An uneventful flight and we arrived at Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon. Even though it is no longer Saigon it still uses that name.
Our half day tour started immediately and we began at the War Remnants Museum. A very sobering place and of course all set from the Vietnamese stance. It was weird walking through looking at the atrocities that our side caused. It really focuses on how barbaric the Americans were. The museum is really a photo gallery of the war and was very sobering and confronting. I hadn't thought about Agent Orange before. I knew it was nasty stuff but didn't realise that in an attempt to defoliate the jungle they also poisened the people and the next generation suffered terribly with congenital defects. To the museums credit they also had photos of American children who had American soldier fathers and who had been born with defects.
The action photos were extremly graphic and we left to sit outside amongst the United States air planes, helicopters and tanks.
As we left the museum to get back on the bus a man walked past with a large tray on his head of delicious looking somethings piled up like a mountain. Lance managed to get me one before we jumped back on the bus. It had been a long time since breakfast and it was only 9:30am. Picture a small round doughnut topped with crisp praline type stuff with toasted Seseme seeds. Mmmmm.
Driving through Saigon it was hard to believe we were in the same country. A modern city with real roads, beautiful gardens and sky scrapers. However the roads still have no rules. Just push your way through.
Hung asked if we would like Pho for lunch, it is usually a breakfast meal but people are breaking tradition and eating it any time of day. It was unanimous and off we went to Pho 2000, a place famous for its pho. We were served a huge bowl with noodles and meat in a tasty broth. A plate with coriander, chilli, lime and some morning glory (a green vege) was placed in the centre of the table and we popped bits in our soup. Delicious, I also had a coconut with a straw and drank the refreshing coconut water. There were pictures of famous people on the wall, Bill Clinton being one. When we left I commented at how well I felt, as I have had a head cold. Emma who has been really crook with a flu type of thing said she felt the same. It was like we had had some sort of medicine.
After lunch we drove out of town for about 45 minutes to visit the Cu Chi tunnels. They were built in the 1940's to defend the Vietnam Minh from the French, then in the 60's the Vietnam Cong excavated and extended the tunnels making layers of tunnels and escape routes. A very old propaganda DVD was shown and then we could experience the tunnels. There were little escape holes. If some one was coming you could lift a lid that was invisible unless you knew where they were, and drop down, putting the lid back on. Standing right there we couldn't see any sign of a hole. I had a go and it was extremly cramped. Although the Vietnam Cong probably did not have as much butt, bosom and leg as me. The tunnels were very narrow and low. However the smooth walls made it easier than in a cave. I was following a guy from our group and decided to exit at the second exit as sweat was dripping off my chin and my back was aching. It was a relief to reach fresh air and hard to believe that familes had lived down these holes. There are cunning systems for the smoke from cooking to take channels leading away from the tunnels, avoiding detection.
Finally we arrived at our Hotel 'Family Inn Saigon'. Lance and I shot straight out to the pharmacy, of course the lady had no English. I showed her what my Pharmacist buddy Ian had sent me for my lurgy but she had no idea. Nothing for it but to take the plaster off and show her, she immediately reached for a cream and it seemed like she was pretty familiar with whatever my dreaded lurgy is. When we got back I of course googled the cream and it is for herpes. Yuck. It seems unlikely for it to be in the position that it is but maybe it is some tropical type. Fingers crossed it fixes it as I have one patch on my back the size of an old 50c and 3 smaller patches on my side. And they feel like needles and hot and are hot and itchy.
Before getting ready for dinner I nipped into the spa and got a fish treatment. There is a small pool that looks like a fish pond with hundreds of tiny fish. As soon as I out my feet in the rushed over and started nibbling. It felt like tiny spiders crawling all over my feet, but they didn't stop there, they nibbled their way up my legs munching on my sweaty dry skin until their heads poked out of the water and they would slide back in. At first it was hard to take but I persevered. After all I had paid 100,000 dong for this $5 US.
For dinner Houng took us to a roof top restaurant called Lemon Grass. It was very nice and Lance had Lobster and was very happy. It was the most expensive dinner at 4,100,000 dong. The views were fantastic, there is one building, Bitexco Financial Tower that has a helipad. Yeah, yeah I hear you say, so what. This helipad is not on the top of the building, but is cantilevered off the side of the building.
After a full day of action we finally retired to bed.
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