The Cu Chi Tunnels

Yet another early start to a day!

After Gaby had moved into the room with Maria and I, we had a quick breakfast and were on a minibus to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

The first stop was a 'factory' where the victims of Agent Orange hand-make lacquered pictures, vases, jewellery boxes, etc. If I had had my debit card with me I could have easily spent a small fortune on gifts for everyone back home! You could really appreciate the beauty of the finished items after watching the intricate and delicate processes of inlaying egg shells, mother of pearl and silver leaf. One thing though. Why visit here before the tunnels when you could hardly drag their fine products around with you?

When we arrived at the Cu Chi Tunnels our guide for the day, Huy, or 'Steven', shepherded us into a room to watch an unintentionally funny propoganda documentary about the history of the Cu Chi Tunnels - everyone was an "American hero killer!"

Some highlights from the day at the tunnels:

• An 'original' entrance - which was tiny! I don't think that I would have been able to fit into it.
  

  The finished product
  Apparently the US Army recruited smaller Mexicans specifically because of the size of the tunnels.
• A bamboo trap - originally used for capturing animals, it was later adapted to injure and capture US soldiers.
• The collection of traps employed by the Vietnamese - my favourite, if indeed that is the right word, being the particulary gruesome 'Rolling Trap.' A hole in the ground with two parrallel rolling traps of sharpened bamboo spikes that if fallen into would stab it's victim to death. Toe to head. (Well, I warned you that it was gruesome!)
• The Shooting Range - Gaby and I fired M16's. That really is the final time that I'm going to shoot a gun!
• Eating tapioca root - served with some chili and crushed peanut. Bland, but strangely 'moreish'.

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When Gaby and I arrived back at Saigon we met up with Maria and went to the local Ben Thanh Market where we harrassed by the shop-keepers for a couple of hours. I ate some chicken Pho bought from a stand. I say chicken, it was more a chicken carcass. But the broth was delicious!

When the '4pm rain' started we decided to take a taxi back to the guesthouse. Not soon after we had pulled off and a car drove into the side of our taxi at low speed - nobody was hurt. The taxi driver, however, proceeded to chase after the car, forcing them to stop. When he got out of the taxi brandishing a wheel-nut wrench we ran away!

Having safely walked back to the guesthouse we decided to treat ourselves to a visit to the dentist where I had a 'clean and polish' which was a bargain at US$15.

We then booked our 'open' bus ticket to Hanoi with stops at MuiNe, Nha Trang, Hoi An and Hue. The entire length of Vietnam for only US$17!

We ate dinner again that night at The Asian Kitchen. After finally finding somewhere that 'also' serves Vietnamese food I can say that it is delicious. I also finally ate my first entire meal using only chopsticks - except for the last bit of rice which I polished off with a spoon!