Tuesday, November 7
Today’s adventure started at the Cu Chi tunnels about 2 hours out of town. The tunnels are in the jungle and were part of the Viet Cong’s defense system during the war and the base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968. There was about 120 miles of tunnels and 3 layers all of which were dug by hand. It must also be the reason the tunnels are very small. The tour started with a viet cong vet speaking to us through our guide to tell us about how the tunnels were built and how they were used. He was missing an arm and an eye that were lost when he was shot by Americans. Afterwards, we went to see one of the hidden entrances of the tunnel and you could see how small they were.
We kept walking through the jungle seeing different entrances and some of the breathing holes which were used to get oxygen into the tunnels. As we were walking you started to hear gunshots in the distance as there was a shooting range that visitors could use as part of the experience. They then stopped to show us the different booby traps that were set to injure American soldiers as they wanted to injure the soldiers and not kill them as it would take two people to help the injured soldier and then there would be 3 less people fighting for a period of time. Between that and the gunshots it was too overwhelming for me and I started to cry. I kept thinking of my uncle over here and the other soldiers and what they must have went through. It just broke my heart and I wanted to get out of there but we kept walking and getting closer to the shooting range. Not the best of mornings for me. After they showed us how they made rice cakes, which was right next to the shooting range, we were finally able to leave. I was so relieved to get out of there. When we got back to the hotel, we were given a baguette sandwich and had an hour in our room before heading out for the food tour.
The first stop was at a restaurant call HuTil and I kept thinking he was saying we were going to a hotel, which it definitely was not. Instead it was a side road cafe. We had dry noodles which came with pork, shrimp, quail eggs and a few more things. You then put your own lettuce and herbs in the bowl. The broth was served on the side and you drank it like soup vs putting it in the bowl. Then we went to various markets and had fried bananas, fried potatoes, some thin wafers that tasted like an ice cream cone and some fuzzy fruit. Next was a dessert shop, which was much different than I expected. Another road side shop, there was sticky rice in banana leaves but it was very different than in Thailand, some cookies and then a dish with leaches, some type of bean in a sugar water with ice. The last stop was at a beer garden.
Then back to the hotel to get ready for the show. At 5:30 pm we walked over to the Opera House to see the Vietnamese Bamboo Circus. It was a combination of acrobatics, theatre and comedy. It was cute and definitely put on for the tourists and the performers were very talented.
Photos
Additional photos coming