Friday, December 28, 2007
Hello Miss Saigon

State: Awake.

Ahh. After visiting Hokkaido, Tokyo, and Mt Fuji Base.... The next stop, Ho Chi Minh City, aka Sai Gon.

It will be a huge jump from culture, environment, temperature and food. I guess I'm kinda more or less prepared for that now though I really miss Hokkaido days.

These days.. have been a nice break for me. Although it haven't been really fantastically spent, I'm glad to have this well deserved break from FYP. I was checking school mails these days for more things to do from FYP Woo but there isn't :)

Out of these 12 days of Christmas, my blood pressure was maxed by that one person since Day 1. It really gets on my nerves and she has the cheek to demand her christmas pressie from me. Very irritating right??? =.=

Right. Let's MOVE ON to something less irritating and more interesting.

I was doing some random surfing to enhance my vietnam war knowledge and I was amazed by my findings. For those who are REALLY interested, you are free to wiki it. Let me summarise the whole chunk of sausage (passages that I read) into fine dining bits in layman terms for simple people like walkergal..

Basically. There's 2 islands. Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Something (too complicated to elaborate) happened. So there was a conflict. This conflict was known as the Vietnam Conflict which started from 1959. Simple to catch?

Next, the Vietnam Conflict avalanched into The Vietnam War from 1965 - 1975. It was concluded with a North Vietnamese military victory and a United States (US) defeat which effectively ended The Vietnam War. For those who still dunno WHEN was this Vietnam War executed, here's a bit on the timeline.

Second World War -> First Indochina War -> Vietnam War

Now, enough of the war happenings. Let's be more focused on the NOW. When you visit Vietnam now, for the adventurous (thats what walkergal will be doing), you get to explore the tunnels at Cu Chi area, aka Cu Chi Tunnels, a network of low lying tunnels that were used as a underground shelter that stretched as far as Cambodia, containing kitchens, medical clinics, commander's bedroom.

By the way, SGD$1 = VND$11000.

So the interesting and exciting part IS:
I would be crawling on all fours in the dark and humid tunnel. There will be tourists in front and behind so cannot get out of the tunnel once started. There are kitchens and hospital inside the tunnel system. There will be bobby traps on display. And can get to fire live bullets using M16 and other guns for as little as US$1. Ahhh... so EXCITING! But I really don't know if I've claustrophobia though.

Well well.. its gonna be a nice experience for me to get down smelly and sweaty on all fours with my only nice experience from my bmt days. Hur.. I certainly think this is one of the HIGHLIGHTS for me in Vietnam!

To be continued... ...