We woke up fairly early to get into the city. We stopped at a coffee shop for a light breakfast and some coffee (for those who drink it). We also stopped at a souvenir shop before we got into a Taxi for our destination of the day. The Chu Chi tunnels are about an hour away from the city and a 20 dollar taxi ride (split between 6 people). During the Vietnam war the Chu Chi tunnels were used by the Viet-Cong in battle against the south Vietnam and USA. Before even going we were warned that this is a pretty “anti- USA” place. They celebrate here the ways they killed Americans and the ways they won the war. But we all thought it was important to see the war from the other side.
We got to the tunnels which are literally in the middle of nowhere at around noon. We had troubles getting out tickets because no one spoke English, but we just handed them what we thought was a good price for a ticket and they handed one over for us. In the beginning of the tour they started us off with a video. The video was a short background of how the “devil American’s” (using their words) came and destroyed their families and homes but they decided to fight back. They talked a good 15 minutes just one people who got awards for their clever ways of killing Americans during the war. It was also scary because they showed actual video footage from the war, including those who had died. It was a real wake up call to what went on here and that it was not that long ago. After the 30 minute movie we were lead onto the jungle by a tour guide. It was very beautiful, all of the trees, animals and more. We saw small animals and lizards everywhere. Our tour guide spoke English, thank goodness. In our group we were also joined by a couple from Germany who were living in China.
Our group was lead into our first tunnel after a 10 minute walk. without having known it was an entrance, we would have walked right by it. It was scary how good they were at hiding their tunnels and their barricades while they had small holes to kill people. It really hit us hard because American’s died on this land in large numbers too. This is in a way a graveyard. We were lead to many tunnels, homes, clinics, meeting areas. It was crazy that they built a whole city under the ground. We saw bomb craters and traps people were killed in. it was a pretty emotional experience to see all of this, but overall interesting and educational.
After our tour ended they treated us to potatoes that you dip into a sugar and peanut filled bowl. It was alright. At that point it was food because we were hungry. We also ordered a fresh coconut that they cut open and stuffed a straw into. We also had a really lovely conversation with the German couple who was with us. They were really friendly. We talked a lot about China and living there. Nothing I feel comfortable putting on my blog though.
We walked into the street to find a bus, we were told the bus comes every hour, lucky for us we didn’t have to wait long. The bus was interesting as we had to stand the whole time because it was full. People gave us looks and tried to talk with us but we just smiled and nodded because we couldn’t speak it. On our second bus into the city we had a seat in the back. We ended up being bombarded by adorable kids. They came and talked, made faces with us and laughed. A baby in front of us played with us too, it was adorable and we had a lot of fun with the kids. After our bus ride we ate some BK because it was next door, then we headed to a local night market before going back to the ship for bed.
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