Today we woke up bright and early to a wonderful breakfast in our hotel the Bong Sen, before quickly checking out and hopping onto our multi coloured bus. We made our way through the bustling streets of Ho Chi Minh city before bursting out into the open areas made up of rice paddies and fields we encountered throughout our long journey to the Cu Chi Tunnels. We then proceeded to have a guided tour with our new tour guide Mr Lam. We learnt about the interesting and complex tunnel systems and were all excited and slightly nervous after realising that we would be entering them soon enough. Although, our trip to the Cu Chi tunnels was largely about learning about the lives of the soldiers that lived in the tunnels, how they cooked their food, how they defended themselves and how the war affected them. Many of the Vietnamese built traps to defend the tunnels which had become their homes. The traps, normally used to hunt animals were placed around the countryside. Gruesome spikes, holes and explosives hidden gracefully under foliage and dirt. We also visited the rooms where they cooked their food, made their clothing and saw intricate ventilation systems, disguised as a termite mound.
Then finally it was time to enter the tunnels themselves. We descended down the first set of mud steps and entered a room a couple of metres into the ground, only to find out that we had to go deeper into the earth to enter the tunnels themselves. The tunnels themselves are around 1 metre tall and only half a metre wide, so most of us were forced to crawl on our hands and knees. This was done on purpose by the Vietnamese as they were usually smaller than the Americans who would be invading, so they could move quickly through them while the opposition would be forced to move slowly, dragging gear along with them. By the end of the tunnel, most of us were rushing with adrenaline and wanting to go again.
The shooting range gave mixed reactions in the group, some of the group chose to shoot and have a new experience and some people just wanted to enjoy a chilled beverage and relax. After the wonderful Cu Chi experience we hit the road again in our multi coloured bus and started the 3 and a half hour bus trip to the Mekong Delta. The flat and vast land of the Vinh Long is a big contrast to the last village we went to. Finally after an extremely tiring bus ride we finally arrived at the place where we would be taking our private boat to our final home stay. We were only a couple of hundred metres from the home stay when we came across a bridge. Since it is the start of a lunar month the tides were higher so to get under the bridge most of us had to go to the front of the boat but that still was not enough so we had to get off the boat and walk the rest of the way which was an interesting experience…
At last we made it to our home stay and got settled in for the night.
By Ben and Steve