The Cu Chi Tunnels

We started our day bright and early (well not really it was more like 8am) to head off to the Cu Chi Tunnels about 60km north of Ho Chi Minh City. We were picked up by a local tour bus which was nicely air conditioned however as the roads in Vietnam are not to the standard to which we are accustomed to back home, it was more like riding a horse the whole way. Every bump in the road would send us a meter in the air with more substantial bumps giving us hang time!

When we arrived we noticed the change in temperature from really hot to even hotter as we were in highly vegetated areas that trapped in the heat and raised the humidity to an inhumane level. We started the tour off at a simple whole in the ground which to everyone looking at it, looked like not even Kate Moss could squeeze herself through. However nonetheless I thought I'd (Kristian) try assuming failure, but against all odds (and scrapping both shoulders whilst almost having to dislocate both my shoulders) I slid into the hidey hole. Most of the other sites included ventilation ducts and the likes which were all cool to see, however reaching the first tunnel that you could actually crawl through was what was on my mind. Now after we painfully crouched and hobbled (imagine getting in the fetal position and penguin walking through 100m of tunnel in the pitch black with only the light from your phone/camera) through various tunnel systems with quite a few people sitting out due to claustrophobia. After hobbling through the tunnels and emerging sore after just 5 minutes down there, the tour guide shatters our efforts by firstly reminding us that the Vietnamese LIVED in these conditions for days to weeks only coming up to go to the toilet at night. Secondly and the most devastating to our merciless efforts is the fact that it is a known fact that western tourists are considerably larger than your typical Vietnamese and as a result (due to increases in tourism since 1982) they had widened these sections by 300% of their original size (and I thought I did well getting through the ones we crawled through). The guide further explained that to get through these original tunnels you had to drag yourself through with your elbows and push with your knees like a commando crawl, however she went on and told us there were tunnels that you basically had to squirm your way through like a worm.

Now I must say one of the most exciting events of my day was what I did next. This gave me the ability to cross off another checklist item on my 'things to do in Vietnam' Checklist, [] (tick) shoot a gun in Vietnam. However not only was it just a gun, it was an M16 and I had a very romantic 10 bullets to annihilate the red target placed before me. To sum it up, it was awesome. Nothing more, nothing less. The noise was no less intense, I honestly don't know how the soldiers had any rest during the war seen as though someone accidentally rang our hotel room last night at 12:30am and scared the crap out of us let alone gun fire in the middle of the night.

We stopped shortly after the firing range to eat the typical Vietnamese snack which was basically raw potato, which to say the least I probably wouldn't go back for seconds. After watching a movie that probably predates the war itself it was that old, we headed back to the bus for our exciting trip back to the hotel (your probably wondering why it was exciting? well every car/bus journey in Ho Chi Minh city is exciting just to watch the manic traffic and just keep count of how many times it looks like someone is going to smash into us).

After arriving back to the hotel we had a short rest before heading out to our much anticipated Gloria Jeans visit to compare the Vietnamese counterpart to the Australian original. To our amazement, it trumped the Australian standard Original Iced Chocolate by a long shot, and while Lauren was cautious as the ice was made using Vietnamese water (and your not meant to drink it) I was guzzling like it was out of fashion. It was delicious.

After dinner (and an awesomely cheap 3 tiger beers for $3) went ventured back to the hotel to recuperate and re-venture out into the streets for the Ben Thanh night market. It was an okay market (not as good as its indoor counterpart that closes at 6ish) although as it was on the streets and the Vietnamese don't take the initiative to close the actual street off to traffic you had to keep one eye out for the market stalls and the clothes whilst another out for the motorbikes flying past you. Pretty crazy all-in-all. The market stall owners are pretty desperate though, while this is considered a tourist market (when there are virtually no tourists) they had ridiculous prices and have a very hard time selling things. This one girl saw me looking at some shorts and literally would not let go of my arm for about 10 minutes begging me to buy them at ANY price! It was actually quite sad.

Well it is now the morning of the 4th day and we are deciding what we can do today, nothing has come up thus far. But we might just go walking and see what hits us (hopefully not a motorbike, but most likely that sewerage smell that is sometimes ever so pungent).

We will post our doings tomorrow just before our first train journey of approximately 10 hours to the coastal town of Nha Trang.
Until then everyone stay safe and I will speak to you all soon.
Kristian & Lauren.