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New mozzie bites: hmm 4 I think
New friends made: 1 german women travelling alone, three Danish girls on their way to Cambodia and an English woman moaning about the heat (no that wasn't me!)
AK47's fired: none!
Back on the 'air con' bus which I swear is only about two degrees cooler than outside and on to the Cu Chi tunnels.
This place holds massive significance for the southern Vietnamese as it's where the guerilla fighters of the Viet Cong captured, massacred and generally tried to overcome the Americans during the war. Not armed with anything comparable to the bombs being dropped on them or the AK-47s being shot at them they dug themselves out of harm's way. Literally.
The area is home to miles of tunnels, three levels deep (around 9m the deepest) where the villagers took refuge and plotted their attacks. They also captured various US weapons which hadn't detonated and turned them against the GIs. They scurried around underground in tiny little caves which have now been opened as one of the area's main tourist attractions. We were shown one of the original entrances, before being led round to one of the tourist entrances -
A bear trap...
... used to catch pesky Americanswidened by a third to fit us fat westerners in! I couldn't pass up the chance to crawl through (glad I put shorts and a white shirt on today!) but boy was it hot down there. I could cope with the confine space, but the heat, ew! One of the Danish girls tried to get through the original door, she managed it, but had to be dragged back out, so I decided against it, what with my hips and all..!
So the attractions: Lots of bomb craters, discarded weapons and the bobby traps they used to catch their prisoners. The Cu Chi people are considered very brave and the young people were urged to grow up with 'a plough in one hand, a rifle in the other'. The introduction video sat a little uncomfortable to say the least, as it described how they were praised for their fighting skills in catching and killing those pesky Americans!
Me and a couple of the Danish girls wanted a go on the firing range - everyone else had decided it was in bad taste I think (that or the 200,000VD price tag put them off!) Just as we decided to split
the cost our guide decided it was too expensive for us. It turned out he'd worked for the Americans as an interpreter, needless to say he was a little uncomfortable there. And it's Labour day, so everyone else is off work and enjoying themselves!
We were soon back on the coach - via the souvenir shop! - and heading back to HCMC.
It's been a strange day, and I think it's fair to say I'm a little war-ed out now. It's such a shame that so much of the south of this country is defined by the wars, esp the American one, when the people are so friendly and accomodating and the countryside beautiful. Clearly we need to learn from the mistakes of the past, but some things are better left as history. xx
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NIcholas Gosling
non-member comment
Education
Its like being back at school reading your new blogs. The only difference is that this time I am actually trying to take it all in. X