cu chi

this morning we hoped a van to Cu Chi, a town about 60km outside Saigon to see the VC tunnels. before i fill you in on our day, i have to note how throughout this whole trip, we've really lucked out with our tours and guides. the group we were with in Halong was great, and it was a blast hanging out on Cat Ba with the two couples we were with. in Sapa, bob and i had our own private tour guide the entire time, and after chatting with the other people in our "group" realized we didn't pay any more than they had and they were all in groups of 5 to 10 people. plus, our hikes were way more ethnic than the other travelers reported, so bonus there! yesterday, we again had our own private tour guide through the Mekong, and again, we didn't pay any more than groups of eight or more would pay. today, we were joined by a nice couple from India and our guide, Typhoon (no shit, that was his name) was a blast. he figured out a way to incorporate some crude joke into just about every conversation we had which was right up our alley.

anyway, back to our day. we stopped about 45 minutes outside of Saigon at a factory set up by the government a year after the war ended to give handicapped veterans a place to work making mostly tourist type goods like decorative plates, vases, and baskets. Typhoon explained there was no pressure on the workers to finish a set amount of items per day and the purpose of the place was to simply give the veterans a place to feel they have a sense of purpose - a very important value to the Vietnamese.

unfortunately, today is a national holiday here and all the workers were not working. this was a bummer as our guide said the workers are very friendly and open to chat about the war with tourists - something i have been wanting to do this whole trip. it was nice to see the country has set up a network like this for their handicapped war vets, though.

after waiting for the Indian couple (which turned out to be a very popular theme today), we left for the Cu Chi tunnels. it's not a very big place, and you can easily get around the whole area in about two hours. the tour started with a 1/2 hour 1960's government film put out shortly after the war and it was definitely intended to reinforce anti-american attitudes. it wasn't as bad as i had read, but they said things like the "american devil wanted to kill our women and children" and the "americans only want to kill our land." it was a bit disheartening to hear it put in that context, but i also understand many innocent people died and it was a total shit situation.

after the video, we walked through the grounds and learned about the tunnel system. all throughout the area, there were little hidden doors leading into the tunnels below. we each gave it a go and below is bob just about all the way in.

it was about 12"x 8" at MOST, and was a bit snug to say the least. plus, the thought of a king cobra hiding down in the hole was in the back of my mind the whole time as Typhoon has warned us about them frequently being found in the area. nice.

a bit later, we had a chance to fire off some GUNS!!!! bob opted for the ak-47 and the m60, while i just gave the ak-47 a try. the bullets were expensive - about a buck a piece - but it was worth a try.

and about one minute later when we were all out of bullets, we continued our tour and had the option of going down into the tunnels. i know we were going to be able to do this. what i didn't know is that we were going to go through the tunnels from one place to the next.

within about 2 minutes, our legs were burning as you had to do a sort of squat shuffle thing though it. the tunnels were about shoulder width wide and a little less than three feet high and were were feeling good about being able to make it through as far as we did until we learned the tunnel we were in was made twice as large as the original for tourists to get through. i can only imagine how taxing it must have been on the bodies of the VC to be in and out of the tunnels month after month.

Cu Chi also had a plethora of trap displays used by the VC with the intent of maiming and killing US soldiers. the one below is a platform which swivels in the middle. step on the end, and you fall through to the spikes below. while it was interesting, i could have done without all the humor. i tried to keep an open mind, but knowing people died horrible deaths with similar devices hindered me from finding humor in it.

my mixed feeling lasted about 5 minutes though, because in typical fashion, bob and i heard our names being called by Mark, the expat from San Fran we originally met in Halong and again ran into in Hoi An.

after a short chat and photo with him and his ladyfriend, we hoped our van back to Saigon. the weather was blazing hot again, and it's really taking it out of us. we crashed on our beds the minute we got back to our hostel, and didn't move for about a half hour. tomorrow, our last day here, we are heading to the war remnants museum and will be shoving off on our plane at 11pm. if we don't post up an entry before we leave, we'll both be posting up a final post about our final thoughts on our trip in the next few days, so please check back for that.

until then -