Monday, July 25, 2005

Its small and dark in the tunnels

John can't fit in the tunnel
Joanna is practucally sitting, these tunnels are small


Day 18: The Cu Chi Tunnels

Leave early again, this time for the CuChi tunnels, which are both eerie and awesome. We stop at the Cao Dia temple - which is "a very important religion," according to our guide. Cao Dia is somehow made up of all the world religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, etc.). Once at the tunnels, we watch the ridiculous propaganda video about the American Devils and Satans, the Heroic American Killers and the American Lackeys.

Once the video was over, we were taken to see the tunnels, including some base stations, that served as headquarters, hospitals, etc. that might require more space. They are large holes about 6 feet deep, that were covered with brush and grass. Our guide showed us an actual tunnel entrance and allowed us to try to fit in. I…um…well, I’ve haven’t lost much weight with all the walking we’ve been doing, because I couldn’t fit my belly through the tiny hole. We were shown some of the booby traps that were set up (which were very freaky and a bit humbling) as well. Its amazing how resourceful the Vietcong were in using leftover explosives to create their own explosives as well as using simple things like nails and bamboo to create deadly weapons. It was scary.
While you are walking through the jungle, peering into the tunnels, which could not be more than a few feet high and a couple feet wide (at times that’s generous), and looking at other relics, you hear massive bangs and explosions off in the distance. That’s because there is a shooting range on site. I am sure that the shooting range was only created as another way to get tourist dollars, but it really adds to the whole experience of walking through jungle. Imagine you are 19 years old, away from home, its hot and sweaty, there are mosquitoes, bugs and a surprising number of ants all around you and loud gun shots are all you hear and everywhere you step there is the possibility of a booby trap. Scary, really scary.

We made it to the shooting range, which I had been looking forward to for a while. I immediately handed over $20 for 20 M-60 bullets and my friends bought M-16 and AK-47 bullets. BAM! BAM! BAM! The M-60 was fully automatic and was awesome to fire. I did a couple sprays and my $20 was quickly spent.

The highlight of the tour was the trip through the tunnels. There are three sections (the first two are 30 meters and the final one is 40 meters) that were recreated for tourists, meaning that they are larger. However, each section gets successively smaller, tighter and darker, and ends with you popping up through a hut. We did each section and the final section was ridiculous. There was a massive puddle we had to wade through pretty much on our hands and knees. Actually, we were pretty much on our hands and knees for the entire 40 meters. We popped up hot, sweaty and exhausted from all the crawling and our tour guide lets us know that most tourists do the first 30 meters, some do the second 30, but few do the last 40. . It was fantastic. Of course the trip ended with our tour guide pointing out all the great things we could purchase – including chopsticks.

Bob, Lisa and Ryan headed off for Phnom Penh; but our love for Siagon kept Joanna and I in town for one more day. We just didn’t feel as if we had the opportunity to explore it enough. So, we headed out for lunch. The first place, Annies Pizza, is supposed to be a “Saigon Institution,” according to Lonely Planet, but it was under construction due to new management and the second place was closed from July 15-Aug 1. So, we went to a third choice. On the way we found a little cafĂ© run by a Aussie that had pizza and nachos, so we stopped there.

After a quick bite to eat, we spent the afternoon shopping. While we were shopping on the street we were hounded by a three year old girl trying to sell postcards. It was sort of cute, because she would repeat over and over, “one, two, three, four, five, six., seven, eight, nine, ten. One dollar.” I started counting with her and started laughing and then I tried to shake her, by moving back and forth again and she laughed more. But, she quickly composed her self and put on the hard sell and started telling me $1 over and over again. It was very sad, to watch this 3 year old girl push postcards, while her mother was watching from down the street.

We took some time to head to a huge department store to see what that was like. It was quite similar to a Bloomindales, with one major exception. The sales clerks are just standing (not slouched), very professionally, waiting for you to enter their section. When you do, you are quickly greeted and they stand by you as you browse through whatever you are interested in. It was sort of suffocating.

We headed back to the hotel for our massages. It was pretty sketchy and not very clean. But, hey, its $15.

We eat dinner at Le Fochette, another French restaurant where we had another steak and ended the evening with drinks at Saigon, Saigon with fantastic views of the city.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Aaaaaa Sweet u luckyy i want to
bust offf a few caps, That sounds so
sweet i bet those AK's were fun as hell huh