back from holiday in Ho Chi Minh!

dunno how to describe it though, i think its a city that is better experienced than described. we didnt visit a lot of tourist places, but its made a great impact on me anyway.

especially the war museum and the cu chi tunnel. during the vietnam/american war, the VietCong guerillas actually lived underground in order to fight the stronger American troops. and its not like the australian outback exotic underground, its tropical forest mushy muddy underground. what's more, they had to crawl through tunnels in order to get to the separate rooms and yada yada. absolutely no light, just the one or two oil lamps. just imagine one big ants nest underground. hand dug and all. and they made ventilation by clearing out termite nests.

we got to enter the tunnel that was already enlarged for tourists but even so you had to bend down and walk in single file. and it gets freakishly scary when you lose the guide, cos he's the only one with the oil lamp. its basically feel your way out of the tunnel. man if you lose your head or get claustrophobic youre totally gone. it was a really humbling experience.

napalm sucks.

at the war museum they had pictures of vietnamese who were exposed to the horrible chemicals of american warfare and were disfigured. there was one pic of a guy whose face was swollen and one side look as if it melted off. there was one uncle who was selling tissue paper at tampines mrt who had the exact same condition, and all i could think of that time is that he got botched surgery or something. for all i knew he was a war victim.

..its definitely food for thought.

well, on this trip also made a lot of new friends! aunty emily, alice, catherine and jenny, and also hui yee :) had great insight into the singaporean education system cos huiyee and aunty emily are both teachers. omg so hilarious. the "backpacking aunties" are geniuses. like energizer bunnies. they provided alot of laughs with their stories and experiences. especially aunty emily. haix, will miss them lots!

ps: the pic above is credited to joyce and joyce alone. muhaha. ho chi minh is CRAZY when it comes to traffic. motorbikes by the zillions. in that sense its the same as in shanghai.