on our final day in phnom penh we had a look at the royal palace, which is pretty surreal, as outside the gates of this golden bastion is major poverty. the palace was pretty cool with plenty of artifacts from cambodia's previous kings. we headed to vietnam the following morning to ho chi minh city.
ho chi minh [and vietnam in general] seems far more developed than cambodia. the roads are decent, there's more cars, and the shops in the city are nice. there's even a KFC here! not that i'd ever eat there again...
this morning we headed out to the cu chi tunnels about 90 mins from the city. this is where the majority of the fighting was done in the vietnam war. our vietnamese guide was an interpreter during the war for the americans so was full of great information. the tunnels themselves are absolutely tiny - i got to journey down one of the larger sections to see what it was like for the rebel force. i even got to kill some gooks! ok, ok, maybe not quite... but i did get to fire some rounds off at a shooting range using the trusty AK47 - the russian semi-automatic that has been the weapon of choice for rebels for the last god knows how long. was a weird experience. phil would be proud i guess. i've shot using that weapon in so many computer games i've lost count. dee took a film of me while shooting, so will show ye when i get back. not a habit i'll be taking up though, don't worry ma.
we also headed to the war museum today and saw loads of tanks and airplanes. there was geansai-loads of photos from the press in the vietnam war era aswell. to top off the busy day, i decided to go have a look at the opticians here in vietnam to see could i pick up a pair of glasses for a reasonable price. an eye test, frames, and glare coated lenses all set me back 25 euro. sweet.
heading to some markets and shops tommorow, then we're off to the mekong delta tour for 2 days; which starts in vietnam, and ends in cambodia. a quick stop there and then off to thailand!
