So on the 4th day of our trip, we are still in the bustling city of Ho Chi Mhin with
its 9 million inhabitants and over 5 million motorbikes. We decided to approach the day in prime tourist fashion by booking a ourselves into a tour group going to an area known as the Cu Chi Tunnels. It should come as no surprise, but this was the largest concentration of tourists we'd run into yet. We piled onto an old charter bus that must have been a Budweiser bus in its prior life because every seat had the red and gold emblem embroidered into the headrest.2 hours later, we were outside of the city in a wooded area and pulled into the complex of the tunnels which had been preserved for tourists. This network of tunnels was built up to an astounding 250km winding pathways underground with depths ranging from 2m to 9m below ground. All of which was dug by hand without the aid of GPS or any sort of planning map. In fact, a map of the tunnels was never made so that if a member of the Viet-cong was killed there would be no map for the enemy to posses. The entrances to the tunnels were well hidden and quite small. We were shown how the VC would enter and exit the tunnels with ease through this 14x8 in square in the ground. It wasn't as easy for the brave few in our group of tourists that decided to try entering in the same fashion.
Now this area which we had access to was a small area preserved by the government and set up to educate others of the tunnels. For those needing a refresher in
history, the Viet-cong won, and as such it was quite unique to see the story told from their prospective. In fact, the tour guide, who was from south Vietnam and his family was against the VC, was quick to point out that the movie introduction of the tunnel system may come across as propaganda, and it did. They went on an on about the US and Australia helping the rebels of the south and killing the peaceful people living in the Cu Chi area. Granted, the US did not come out of the war with a glamorous record of humanitarian deeds, but I figured I would take everything we heard and read with a grain of salt. Among the displays were many traps conjured for maiming or killing enemy soldiers as they traipsed through the woods.
The park area, in addition to being set up as Vietnamese war propaganda, was set up with the capitalist perspective, complete with gift shops at the entrance and in the middle. They even sought a little entertainment to surprise the visitors. We were asked to locate the entrance in a clearing of leaves. Upon finding it, one of the tourists lifted the door to be shocked with a large firecracker going off to simulate a grenade exploding from the tunnel. The park attendants nearby chuckled to themselves at the shocked group. Five minutes later, while the tour guide was giving a speech about the tunnels, another loud fire cracker went off. The two park attendants just looked back and said, "Sorry...accident," and smiled. Apparently there isn't too much training or safety courses to speak up.Continuing through the park, we realize that we aren't at a US Smithsonian with the plethora of "do not touch signs". In fact, we are encouraged to climb on an old US tank that was left exactly where it had been disabled by a land mine. Being good Americans, we lost no time in climbing onto the tank and taking a pictures. Then came the cool part, they said, "Who wants to shoot a gun?" Of course, Spencer and I jumped at the opportunity. But just like every good theme park, they tell you the price per bullet of $1.50 and you have to buy a minimum of 10 bullets after laying out the option of guns. Spencer opted for the M30 machine fun, I of course had to one up him and go with the M60, which was nicknamed the "Rambo gun"...it was worth the 15 bucks!
Finally, they take us to the tunnels. We are only given about 100m to walk and we are told that there will be exits every 20m if we can't stand it. Mind you, the tour guide points at the entrance and says he'll meet us at the exit since he'll be walking around and not through the tunnels.
Once we leave the tunnels and head back to the city, we re-enter the city and engage the crazy game called city traffic. I've mentioned the scene before, but I feel this picture is worth pointing out. This is the view from inside the bus as we go through a major intersection. Notice that everyone seems to converge at the same time in the same place and just kinda goes for it! It is crazy! Luckily we had the big bus, so we dominated the intersection.
On the ride home, we talked with our fellow tourists. We leaned that they are from Canada and think American football is too much of a sissie sport because they have everyone wear pads. I shook my head and could only think of my football fanatic
friends and the litany of retorts they would have to the Canadian's comments! We saw past the disagreement of sports and agreed to meet out new found friends later for a night on the town. Here's a quick picture of the city at night as we walk through the city.
Now our new friends have been traveling for several weeks and were not as afraid of foods and other concerns as us. As such, they introduced us to the finesse of ordering street food. To the best of my knowledge, it was pretty much a point and shoot (or order) game. One of them was Chinese, even though she couldn't speak Vietnamese, she was designated as the person to order because it is less likely she would be ripped off and the locals would try talking to her as a local....what ever works. We got a rice dish, a noodle dish, and something else, all I cared about was the fact they had been fried, so at the very least my food was seared free of any bugs.
The street vendor was very animated to have 8 tourists stopping to order food that she pulled up several plastic chairs, cleared a table, and started yelling at the man working the wok 3 feet away to start cooking up our food. At some point she felt so generous that she cooked up some odd looking meat in a sauce and brought it over to the table. As luck would have it, I was sitting on the end of the table and caught her attention and she tried to tell me what it was and that I must have some. She didn't take no for an answer. This determined lady grabbed a piece of break, put it through some sauce, procured my chopsticks, and proceeded to grab a piece of meat and hold it in front of my mouth. How could I refuse? Then again,....what the hell was I about to eat? With much laughing from everyone else, I ate it. It didn't taste horrible, but the texture was not appealing. It was a bit tough and had a raised something or other on one side. After much debate, we settled on saying I ate liver.
We walked with out new friends to a local bar hangout and sat down for some beers and fried whole crabs from another street vendor. Entertainment consisted of numerous people peddling their goods from sunglasses to books to dvds to bracelets. There was one persistent little kid that came up to one of the girls in our group and insisted on her purchasing a bracelet. He was pretty set on his price too! She haggled with him but he would give a response such as, "I'll give you special price, 20, but then you pay me extra 10." For the non-math majors, he was dead set on getting 30 for the bracelet. Later a guy drove down the street on his motorbike and started blasting Michael Jackson from a loudspeaker on the back of his bike. He moon-walked and danced in the street until some drunk foreigners began to include themselves in his display of dancing. Another character joined us briefly. He was a Russian guy with a strong accent and had clearly been drinking all day. His contribution to the group was a Russian cheer. He said, "Te Be Sex. You can remember this easily by thinking terrible sex and just saying it really fast." He muttered some other Russian, but I couldn't remember it. Then he disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared. And with that so will I. Until the next post...cheers!
