Cu Chi Tunnels and a Rooftop Bar

Sunday 25th June
* Much quieter during the early morning walk to the park but still plenty of people doing their excercises. On the way back I noticed the the soccer fiels were fullof kids doing soccer training, at 6.30am.
* A quick breakfast and out the door by 8am when we were picked up in a mini van to start our 1 1/2 hrs trip & tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels. The trip took us through the city, along a highway where the bikes & scooters have their own road on the side. Apparently there are 8million scooters / bikes & 1million cars in Ho Chi Minh with a population of 12 million. Owning is scooter (Vespa, etc) is a bit upmarket and a bit "girly" so most men ride small motorbikes (which look pretty similar to a scooter). Then the bus does a detour and goes to a small goods factory, supposed all made by the special needs workers, victims ofthe war, where we are escorted past some things being made before going through the shop. On Justin's advice we didnt buy anything and in fact we saw exactly the same mass produced goods at the markets for much less $.
Only 12 on our bus, us rowdy 6, a Swedish family of 4 who were very quiet and a British couple. Plus Ling our tour guide and the bus driver. Ling was excellent, a dry sense of humour and very personable nature. She was pretty short and hard to spot in the crowds at the tunnels.
Back on the bus and we carreened down a series of back roads going passed rural villages, rubber plantations and a massive greenhouse development before arriving at the tunnels, with about 50 other bus loads of tourists. Ling was very surprised, it is low tourist season but many Vietnamese were there today.
The first thing we did at the tunnels was sit in a big thatched roof building in amongst the forest and watch a black and white video explaining about the tunnels(a littlebit) and how the North Vietnamese liberated the south fromthe foreign invaders. They highlighted a young lady who was filmed digging tunnels, shooting, killing while starving but officially she had a "wonderful life". All things considered they did kick some serious USA invasion right outof their country.
We were escorted through the forest and it was explained to us how the guerillas built over 200 km of tunnels in this area, housing around 16,000 people over the 6 years, almost 1/2 died defending their lands. The guerillas were tiny people and the tunnel enterances and replica tunnels have been widened to let us fat western people fit through. They have recreated workstations where cooking was done, uniforms made, landmines and booby traps were made and then we got to experience a section of tunnel (had lighting and widened) with exit holes every 20m. Out of our group, Peter was the only one to do the 1st 100m, following a guide who did most of it on his haunches, while I was scrabbling along on all 4's. Eventually popped up like a rabbit from a burrow. As a final token we were given some Tapioca and green tea, to replicate the guuerilla rations I guess.
Then back onto the bus for a non-stop trip back to our hotel.
* Had a nice lunch nearby and then a coffee before some relax time. Sue & Peter went to the markets and tried some haggling, we wont give up our day jobs, but I dont think we were ripped off.
* Then we were escorted by Louisa & Justin, by foot, to a hotel where they stayed in the past. Pretty ordinary from the outside but once we got to the Rooftop Bar on the 9th floor, we were left speechless. A most spectacular view over the HCM skyline, beers @ $1, delicious food and great company.
* Then when we left the hotel, we did not know that everyone in HCM had been invited to cruise the streets around this area on their scooters. Every cafe bar was packed, the streets were clogged and it seems that Sunday night is the time for young Vietnamese men to take their girlfriends out and show them their driving /riding skills. Took every skill we had just to cross every street without injury or causing a collision.
Finally made it back to our hotel undamaged and retired, ready for an early start the next day.

Highlights
* Cu Chi Tunnels;
* Travelling to & from the tunnels, going through some farm lands;
* Ling, our very happy & lovely tour guide;
* Our rooftop dinner & Million $ views;
* The chaos of scooters, cars and horns filling the streets on a Sunday night.

Weather - Overcast, very humid, few light showers, 32CRead more