Photoblog

---

2 blogs in 2 days, how exciting! Thought Id take advantage of the fact that Joey is napping and we get free internet to show you our pics from along the way in Vietnam! Also I would like to tell you about our day today.

We got up at 7 and hopped on a bus to near the Cambodian border to see a Cau Dai church. It is an indigenous religion of Vietnam and it constitutes Catholic, Confucian, Buddhist and Hindu beliefs. It was nice to see, and we sat in the midday service. Everyone was all robed up. (we watched from the balcony).

On the way back to the bus we saw wild monkeys - about 13 of them, eating fruit left on the roadside. There was a bit of a fight, but they were all friends when we left them. Its the first time we have seen them wild, all the other times they have been chained up, except in Laos, where one escaped and ran through the bar and sat on my knee. It was cute enough, but my god did it smell bad.

We hopped on the bus and went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. There we were shown booby traps, and methods of war fare. We were told that there was a tunnel entrance near our feet. I couldn't see it. No one could. There were 18 of us stood within 2 feet of it, and not one person spotted it. Its easy to see how the Americans missed them! Then we went to the firing range, where you could fire all sorts of war guns. It was too expensive for me to do though.

Then we went to the tunnels. Its 100m long with 6 exits. Widened to twice the dimensions for big westerners. (Even that was too small). Joey went into the first entrance and aroud the 1st corner, but then it narrowed some more and dropped another meter, so she got out. Which is fair enough because she doesn't like small spaces. Michelle made it to the 4th exit, and Liam and I got to the end, although one part became so narrow that we were on all fours and had to twist our bodies to get through. Bearing in mind these were widened, there is no way an American soldier could have got through with all his stuff - even if they could find the entrance. Also as well as being impressed at the feat of building such a complex underground network, you have to admire them for living in it. Its so hot, it took me about 5 mins to get through 100m, they lived in there. I was sweating buckets. The normal temperature is about 40 degrees, in the tunnels its probably another 10 degrees hotter. Roasting.


I ought to say, we saw some horrific stuff again to day, and after our Yank bashing yesterday, I thought I'd better say I have a much better idea why they got into the frame of mind they were in. I'll try to explain: The jungle was so thick you couldn't see more than 10m ahead of you. The guns we heard were unbelievably loud and if they were firing all around you, you'd certainly be spooked. The Vietcong seem to appear and disappear at will, and you cant find their hideouts, and the next step you take could be into one or another of several brutal booby traps we saw. Its not an excuse, but more of an insight as to how they got into such a state to do some of the horrendous things they did.

We got back aboard the bus and made our way home through the HCMC rush hour traffic. It was impressive. Thousands upon thousands of bikes all jostling for position, not an inch of tarmac is spare. Madness.

Anyway, sorry to bother you again. This mini blog has turned out quite big. Ill be blogging again from Cambodia. So in the words of Porky Pig:

That's all folks.

---

Comments

[Tone]

Tunnels
Don't know how you could go through those tunnels - too scary for me to even think about! :0(