Cu Chi Tunnels, War Museum and Reunification Palace

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Today we headed off early to visit the cu chi tunnels. This was a really interesting tour, amazing to see the ingenuity of the Vietnamese people and the ways in which they avoided detection during the war. The tunnels were so small, even the one that has been done for tourists is tiny. The boys all tested out the tunnels and followed them for 120meters along. The traps laid in the jungle were simple, clever and devastating in nature. Lots of bamboo spikes and also metal spikes fashioned from recycled she'll from bombs. Everything was recycled, even the tyres to make special shoes. The shoes were designed backwards to make it hard to tell what direction they were going in. One thing you really notice after seeing local Vietnamese people on the land in the Mekong Delta region and then here I the tunnels is how clever they are at recycling. They use everything that is available to them on the land, everything has a use. even the left over rice husks are recycled for animal food or fuel for making bricks.
Max and Paul got to fire AK47 guns at the gun range, so loud, they loved it. Harry and Tom were really cross because they were not old enough to fire the guns. From there we headed off to a cricket farm, the boys had told Lee that they wanted to try crickets to eat and so he would good enough to arrange a visit to a cricket farm. It was interesting to see how they farm the crickets, they sell for $40 a kilo and are a popular snack with beer. Three times as much protein as beef apparently they are really good for you. We tried fried crickets, done with garlic and oyster sauce, wrapped up In Cold rolls. They looked gross but actually once you got over the ick factor, they tasted ok. I didn't really like the legs and antennae in my mouth, but I think if they were crispier or chopped up more they would have been fine. We then did a tour of the Reunification Palace. It was so much better with our own guide, Lee as he explained each room for us. A really sixties style palace. Next we went to the war remnants museum. This is such an interesting place, but so sad, the sadness just ebbs in this place, it is is really palpable and you can feel it like a veil over the room. Some of it was really difficult to see. I had to explain some of it to Harry and Tom and it's just so hard to explain why things like this happen. In particular the photos of the deformed children resulting from the use of agent orange. Just awful. But worthwhile visiting even if it gave Tom and me nightmares.

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