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Published: March 4th 2008
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Cu Chi Tunnels
Female guerillas uniform Day 5 started with breakfast in the alley outside our guesthouse. We had coffee (10,000 D) and shared a plate of fried instant nudels (10,000D). This meal was to sustain us for the very long (motorcycle) journey to Cu Chi Tunnels and back.
We had done a little "research" the night before at the internet cafe, on the distance of Cu Chi Tunnels from HCMC. The sources vary from 25-90 km (we all <3 the WWW) ... And so we thought, what the heck, it can't be that far away. We won't get lost we'll just follow the buses and/or stop and ask the locals for directions along the way.
Getting to the main highway towards Cu Chi was not so difficult, as we followed a bus from Ben Thanh that says "Cu Chi". But once we got on it, that's when our trouble started 😊 We lost 'our bus' every now and then because motorbikes enter a different lane on the highway and there were no friggin signboards anywhere! We must have been pronouncing "Cu Chi" wrongly because some of the locals we asked didn't seem to comprehend what we were asking for 😊
We had been
Cu Chi Tunnels
The boring video that made the words "Cu chi" echo in my mind to date *shudders* riding for a long while on the highway, and we started to get a little worried when we realised we were getting nearer and nearer to Moc Bai. Damn. We're heading back to Cambodia! So while we were
lost nearby Cu Chi (With signboards pointing to awkward directions we were not sure of) a local gentleman pointed us to the 'right' direction. He even scribbled a map on our notebook with the estimated distance to the appropriate junction and where to turn. Great we thought, we're only 28 kms away now. And keep in mind this was already about 2 hours into our journey. And so we tried to look for that elusive signboard/junction and kept turning here and there and aha! Signboards to Cu Chi Tunnel! There was not 1 or 2 signboards. But many of them. After the 2KM sign, we went on to find that it was 7KM more away, and then, after countless turns (and deja vu - I thought I saw that cow back there?) we finally arrived - tired, butt-ached, and covered with exhaust fumes 😊
After parking our bike, we proceeded to the ticket counter closest to the entrance. The lady demanded
Cu Chi Tunnels
I can fit! Wooohooo! 15,000 D per ticket and I paid accordingly. Though it did occur to me why it was so cheap because we had read somewhere it would cost about 70,000D to enter the tunnels. And then I thought to myself, hey maybe she thought I was local and did not give me a tourist priced ticket (Yeah right!!!) So, with our cheapo tickets (Without a single English word on it, and had a picture of a monument - not tunnel) we headed to the tunnels check-in counter. There was this hostile looking guy manning the counter who could barely speak a word of English. In a similarly hostile manner, he indicated that we did not have the correct ticket to enter the tunnels, but did not (or rather could not) explain which was the correct one or where to get it. So we headed back to the ticketing lady, who immediately apologised profusely and pointed us to the 'correct' counter about 300 metres away. I did not understand why she couldn't tell it to us earlier when I asked about the TUNNELS! We were already very tired and still had to be pushed back and forth under the scorching sun!!! So,
Cu Chi Tunnels
Not sure if I can fit into this one after getting the CORRECT tickets, we headed back to the tunnels check-in and were told to wait while they gather a suitable amount of visitors to begin the tour.
As we ventured into the tunnels area, we were shown some bomb craters, weapon exhibits, guerilla uniforms exhibits before being asked to be seated for a sleep inducing video session. The only thing I could remember vividly was the narrator's voice going Kouuu Chiiiii Kouuuu Chiiiii Kouuuu Chiiii~ In fact it echoes inside my head every now and then when I think of Saigon.
Though Eugene found it to be an "eye opening" experience, I found that I had went there for the sake of it. Because there's this unwritten rule that you have to go to Cu Chi Tunnels while in HCM (just like how they say if you haven't seen the water puppet show, you haven't gone to Vietnam. But I'll talk about that later when I get to Hanoi)... And the fact that my thighs and calves ached for days after all the duck walking and endless motorbike ride, there's really not much there unless you're very much into the history and Vietcongs. At the end
of the tour, our guides happily left us in the middle of nowhere, without pointing out where the exit was. After taking a few snapshots of the jars of snake wine at the souveneir area, we wandered around searching for our way out. We probably made a big round, and walked another kilometre or so before finally getting back to the entrance where we had parked the bike. Already very exhausted, we braced ourselves for the long journey back to the city.
We made it back to the city in one piece and decided to head on the the War Remnants Museum. It was not difficult to find the area where it was situated, but the many one way streets around it made it hard to access. We went round and round looking for the right junction. By the time we got there, it was already 4 PM. We only had about an hour to explore the entire place. Actually, the place closed before we managed to finish exploring. Oh well.
We left the museum feeling even more pooped out. The disturbing images of war added on to our weariness. We didn't even quite feel hungry by then.
So we decided to head on back to Pham Ngu Lao to wash up and rest before dinner.
Before we left for Vietnam, I was told to try out Pho 24 (Some franchised pho chain) I was actually more keen on having pho at the little stalls which require you to squat while you eat, but hey, it's like having a Ramlee Burger vs Burger King comparison. I ordered pho bo (beef), while Eugene had pho ga (Chicken). My pho bo was just so-so, but the pho ga had a very strong almost pungent smell of well, chicken. Too chicken-ney for my liking. I haven't had actual pho since arriving in Vietnam, but I figured pho has got to taste wayyyy better than this. So yeah, Pho 24 was a bit of a disappointment.
After pho, we decided to share a baguette sandwich. Haven't had one since injuring my gums with the rock hard porky sandwich in Siem Reap. This one was yummy (I had remarked "yummy" in my little blue note book..) and the baguette was much more fresh. The ham was also real HAM, not those disgusting manufactured porkiness (I don't know how else to describe
A street in HCM
On the way back to Ho Chi Minh city it). After baguette, Eugene was still hungry and decided to hunt for more pho along the PNL alleys. Found one which seem to be attracting lots of local business, so he ordered himself a pork pho while I watched. When it was time to pay, we were pretty shocked as we did not expect it to cost more than 15,000 D for a place like this. Lesson learnt today. Always enquire price before placing your order. 😊 Pork pho 20,000 Dong
We looked around scouting for a bus to Nha Trang - our next stop. Since it was going to be a 9 hour journey at night, thought it would be a good idea to get a sleeper bus instead. Went into almost every travel agent office there was at PNL and decided on the 9.15 PM bus for the following day. We even got onto the bus to checkout their seats 😊 After that, we headed to Lotteria for some ice cream (Needed to boost our squeee-ness) They may not have McDonald's here, but you can find this Korean fast food chain in almost every corner in town.
End of day 5. Phewf. 😊
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