Saigon on all trains

In this entry I have to catch up on a few things. At the beginning I'll go back to 08.02.18. We went into the city in the evening and met Rene one last time. He continued on to Cambodia that evening. Nevertheless, we still drank 2 delicious smoothies for only 60 cents. Then we waited and finally the time had come. Fabi got out of his taxi and looked around confused. He was standing among drunk tourists and hookers and was slightly overwhelmed, but I picked him up right away. Finally, he was there :)) We drank some more together and then fell dead into bed. That day we also got to know 3 Germans in the hostel in the morning. 2 girls and their friend who also came to visit. We immediately joined forces and spent the following days together. We were a great group!

On 09.02.18 we set off on foot through Saigon in the morning. We visited the opera house, the town hall, the cathedral (it is modeled after Notre Dame in Paris) and the flower park. There are simply countless flowers there, which are sold and given away for the New Year on 15.02. The most beautiful orchids and bright red poinsettias. That was really beautiful. Then we had a snack and had something to drink in a hotel cafe. I had a Snicker Jumbo. It was exquisite :) After that we went to the War Museum. That was really shocking. Everything was replicated very well, and it was particularly bad in a room where Agent Orange was presented. Agent Orange is the name of a chemically toxic defoliant used by the US Army to destroy the Vietnamese jungle and flora and fauna. They took away their habitat. The substance destroyed generations and the most terrible deformations emerged. In this room, there were young adults who were affected and sold souvenirs. One played the keyboard and he had no eyes. His eye sockets were closed. In my opinion, it's a bit tasteless to put them there, but okay. Equally as bad was the place where the prison was presented. It was replicated very truthfully and the torture methods were unimaginable! In addition to cages with dogs, spikes on the floor over which they had to do somersaults until they had no skin left on their bodies, pulling nails or teeth, and burning the genitals or mouth were common. It really gave you goosebumps and we were really stunned afterwards and went back to the hostel to rest a little. In the evening, thanks to the other 3, we went to an awesome rooftop bar. It was really classy and normally we wouldn't have been able to afford anything up there, but it was Happy Hour :D The view was amazing and for once we didn't feel like backpackers. After that, we went to the street food market in the city. There are all kinds of delicacies. And for me, there was delicious Chicken Tikka Masala again :) Then we went back to the hostel.

For the next day (10.02.18) we booked a tour to the Mekong Delta. Unfortunately, the tour was not good, but very touristy. We travelled by bus to a factory. We were supposed to buy something there. Everything was made of coconut and bamboo fibers. Then we went by boat to 3 different islands. There we were allowed to watch the coconut candy production, try snake wine (the most disgusting thing I've ever drunk), have lunch (which was cold :D), listen to traditional music (which caused ear cancer), and saw chickens in cages that are used for cockfighting. So it wasn't really worth it. Then we took a boat ride through a small branch of the Mekong. The 2 people who rowed us demanded a tip at the end. None of it was really great. The best part of the day was visiting a temple. There were huge 20-30m high Buddha statues. And then we stood in traffic for another 3 hours. Well, in the evening we went to our favorite Indian restaurant again and went to bed.

On (11.02.18), Steffi, Christina, and Max left us. They continued on to Mui Ne. Fabi and I took the local bus to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Tim stayed at the hostel. After a 2-hour adventurous bus ride with the locals, we reached the tunnels. We were a small group and had a personal guide. He showed us the tunnel systems used by the guerrillas in the Vietnam War. It was a 280 km long system with pit traps, a sophisticated ventilation and living system. Of course, we also got to go through some tunnels. He suddenly opened a hatch under the leaves. It was a hole about 25cm by 15cm. Fabi was the first to dare to go in. I would have bet a lot that he wouldn't fit in there, but with the special tactic, he actually did. The tunnels were very narrow and you had to crawl almost on all fours. It was fascinating. I never would have thought that they could live there and what kind of kingdom they created down there by hand in 20 years. Then we went back home and had an Egg Coffee. In the evening, we went into the city. And sat down in a bar. It didn't take long for the neighboring table to invite us to drink beer with them. A group of Vietnamese in their mid-20s who had already ordered 3 beer towers. It was hilarious how they celebrated. Then, around 2.00 am, we went back to the hostel and slept like babies :D

Today (12.02.18) Fabi and I had a massage, we were massaged very well. Now we're chilling and waiting to go to the airport, because tonight we're off to Thailand.