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Published: January 10th 2013
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Both up early, I'm off for a day trip to the Mekong Delta and Richard is off to the Cu Chi tunnels.
My trip started after a 2 hour drive to the Mekong.
The river is one of the worlds greatest and the delta one of the worlds largest. Originating in Tibet it flows 4500km through, China, Burma, Laos until it reaches Phnom Phen and splits before making its way into Vietnam and splitting several more times. The Vietnamese name for it is 'Song Cuu Long' meaning River of Nine Dragons. The splits have created hundreds of little islands with small canals winding through them.
We reach the river by which time the rain is hammering it down the boat takes us over to the biggest and most famous called Unicorn Island, we stop off at a bee farm and have a cup of hot water honey and lime tea....this honey is soooo good.
From here we walk to a restaurant for fresh fruit, finally get to try the jack fruit I've seen everywhere, very yummy. Whilst munching away we are entertained by the locals and their traditional music and singing. The children join towards the end,
one little girl was soo cute, singing away and her sisters/ friends kept trying to make her laugh the whole time. She looks over familiar...... Mmm think she had a better hair cut than me though, sorry mum ; ).
After fruit we go and jump in a rowing boat, the one I jumped was being rowed by a women who must have been in her 80's, there were six of us in this boat! The rowing boat takes us for about down little canals lined with palms.
Back on the main boat we head to another island called Phoenix Island.
These islands are named after sacred animals from the Chinese calendar, apparently the population of HCMC was expected to increases by two million in 2012 because it being the year of the dragon, its when everyone wants their children to be born.
So on this island we are firstly taken to a coconut candy factory (well there version of a factory is slightly different to ours, you'll see what i mean by the photos) I'm also ravenous (for a change) by this point. So they show us the stages in which they go through to
make the sweets, then we get to taste .....mmmmm so good. Have to buy a pack. They also offer us a sample of banana wine, this stuff almost blew my head off! We are quickly hurried off, think they are worried by how much of the banana wine has been drunk .....
We are taken from here to the restaurant by which point I could in could eat anything....well I'm glad I filled up on fruit earlier, everyone knows I have a big appetite so when I'm presented with a portion of rice two tinnie bits of chicken and some veg, me and Martin the guy from the same hotel as us that I've been talking to look at each other and then say a silent thank god that we've both bought a pack of those sweets to keep us going.... I'm a growing girl what can in say! Lol....
After lunch we get a boat back to the main land, the weather is just starting to perk up and warm.
Richards day at Cu Chi tunnels....
My bus arrives at 7.30am to take me to the tunnels, I will be going on my own as
lucy has gone to the mekon river. 10 minutes into the 3 hour journey my stomach starts making funny noises, oh god I'm going to shit myself! Iv had the runs for about a week thanks to the malaria tablets that i have been taking. Luckily the bus stops at a hotel to pick up several people so I make a run for it! I wouldn't want to be the next guy going into that toilet..
3 uncomfortable hours later we arrive at the tunnels. We have a camp Vietnamese man as our guide for the trip who takes us to the armoury near the enterence for a look at all the weapons that were left by the Americans during the war, they range from m16's to AK47's.
We then head towards the tunnels, stopping first at a little hut to watch a video which explains what happened during the Vietnam war. A little bit of insight for you, the tunnels which were all carved out by hand and stretch an amazing 220km, a small Vietnamese man could only just fit down on his hands and knees, parts of the tunnels led to rooms which were used as
hospital's & places to cook. Cooking turned out to be a bit of a problem at the start as they had to use wood and the smoke would escape through one of the little entrances which would be spotted by the Americans who would bomb where the smoke was coming from. The Vietnamese were very clever and adapted quickly and designed a complex venting system that lead all the way up into a mountain which in the mornings was covered by fog so they only ate one time a day which was in the morning so that when the smoke was coming out of the vent in the morning the Americans could not see it as the fog was hiding it.
The Vietnamese people were also not alone down in the tunnels and were accompanied by snakes , scorpions, spiders and all kinds of bugs.
After the Vietnam war there was the civil war between the north and south Vietnam . 16,000 Vietnamese people moved into the tunnels to live to avoid the conflict which would last 20 years! Only 5,000 people survived living in the tunnels for that long.
After the history lesson we are taken
to a room which is filled with all the different types of traps that the Vietnamese used which were very grusome.
Finally we are taken to the tunnel's. Everybody lines up to go through but not everybody is Kean to give it a go as there is very little room once your in and that's even after they have been doubled in size to accommodate the fatties.
My turn, I squeeze myself into the tunnel and start to crawl through with my back scraping on the top of the tunnel I find it hard to imagine that they used to be half the size. About 10 metres in I'm dripping with sweat so I decided to head for the next exit which is a further 10 metres.
Out I get soaking wet with sweat and relieved to see daylight.
We then finish the day with an opportunity to fire some of the weapons but it is very expensive so I give it a miss.
Back on the bus and can only imagine the suffering the poor Vietnamese people had to go through all because they wanted to become a communist country, I then think how
much I take for granted and feel a great since of gratitude for the life that I have.. : )That evening we eat at the hostel as its included in the rate, can't beat noodle soup and spring rolls.
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