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Published: March 7th 2017
Can't believe it is our last tour day. It really hadn't hit my that the tour was coming to an end till yesterday actually when they mentioned the farewell dinner this evening.
Today we drove outside the city of Saigon and headed to the Chu Chi Tunnels that the Vietcong built. It is basically a complete underground city they built to escape the bombings. On the way to the tunnels we stopped by a home where they make rice paper for spring rolls. It was actually interesting to see how they make it and some in our group even tried to make some themselves. It's a very delicate process and not as easy as the woman made it look.
After buying some souvenirs and trying the rice paper, we headed to the tunnels. We walked through the thick brush on some trails and every once in a while you would see a large dip in the ground where a bomb had exploded. We stopped to listen to an actual Vietcong Officer and he told us of living inside the tunnels. He actually lived in the tunnels for 12 years only coming out at night to visit the local village
and get supplies. The longest he stayed without coming out was 28 days. I didn't realize how terrible that was until I actually went into the tunnels myself. Yes, I actually went into the tiny tunnels and I fit. It was extremely tight and I didn't know if I could do it, but the tunnels were only about 7-9 feet long and then would connect with larger rooms were I could almost fully stand. We saw meeting rooms, hospitals, and sleeping quarters all underground. We even got to see the slits where they would shoot at the American soldiers walking by. It was a very moving experience.
We started heading back to the city where we had a little bit of free time before heading to our farewell dinner. Drury and I were dropped off at the local market where we needed to buy some new suitcases as we bought a lot of souvenirs and didn't have room in our luggage. After buying some suitcases we headed back to our hotel and packed.
We met our group for the farewell dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant. There we enjoyed some local cuisine and all had a great time
talking about the things we enjoyed about the trip as well as giving advice on things to change or keep on the tour. We said goodbye to everyone and then Margo, Drury and I headed to the bar district so Margo could see the paintings she had ordered and then we all had a drink before heading back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.
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