The Cu Chi Tunnels

This morning we headed about 30km out of Siagon to Cu Chi where parts of the imfamous tunnel network of the Viet Cong are situated. This particular system stretched from Saigon all the way to the Cambodian border- crazy! It was quite strange to meander through the forest/jungle where not so long ago soldiors trampled through and the Viet Cong sprung up from underneath to ambush them. The effect was only amplified the by shooting range on sight where you could pay 2 bucks to shoot a gun- we opted out of that option.

I wasn't really sure what to expect but after seeing a small man descend and ascend from the tiny trapdoors hidden by leaves and other forest rubbish I can totally understand why the Vietnam Vets have issues. I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been to not know where the enemy was coming from at any time. Also we got to see some of the Viet Cong traps that were set- trapdoors that the soldiors would fall through onto carefully arranged spears etc. Not nice.

There was an option to move through a small stretch of tunnel (about 30 metres or so) - and I bravely decided I would attempt this scary feat. I did descend into the tunnel and got about 3 steps in- the tunnely was about one metre high and about 40 cm wide and extremely dark- it also twisted and turned so you could never see the light at the end of the tunnel. So after my very brave 3 steps in I fled in the other direction (as I must admit did some other grown men!). But Tim soldiored on and was able to come back out into the light and tell me the tales.

We also watched a weird little video made by the Vietnamese about the tunnels. They kept telling us about Viet Cong soldiors who killed hundreds of american soldiors and were awarded "American soldior killer hero medals". We're not sure if the orginal euphamism was lost in translation or whether they Vietnamese don't bother with such politically correct medal titles and just tell it like it was.

They fed us some sweet potato type things tat were served cooked but room temperature as that was what the people in Cu Chi lived on during the war- not ahving access to rice. It was surprisingly ok- well we hadn't had breakfast and were close to eating each other by this stage anyway.

At the very end of the tour Tim and I got to taste some more rice wine- but this time with a twist- and no not a twist of lime but a twist of venemous cobra snake. There was a whole cobra snake (dead) inside the bottle of rice wine. I didn't think too much about it but knew I would regret not giving it a go when offered the chance- I will admit though that it wasn't particularly great....

We are now taking it easy in Saigon. tomorrow we are up early to travel to Chau Doc- where we will hop on a boat and float up the Mekong River to get to Pnom Penh in Cambodia.... sad to say goodbye to Vietnam. I have had a love hate relationship with this country- but do crave a little more! Next time Gadget, next time!