Cu chi tunnels!

After the city tour, I met up with some friends from Italy and England, who I'd met on the trip. We went for dinner at a very originally named Indian restaurant called 'the Taj Mahal'

"Where did you get the name from?"

Even though I was having a great time, I headed back early as I didn't want to be too tired for the Cu Chi tunnels trip.

Getting up early was still a bit of a struggle. I was the only one from my hostel on the trip again, so the bus driver got me to sit right at the front, next to this kid, which was a bit annoying as I wanted to talk to some people.

We went to the Cao Dai temple first. I made friends with a girl from China, and we went round together. Was really interesting to hear all about China and Hong Kong, where she works.

The temple from the outside

The temple was interesting but I didn't understand the significance of it until I met a girl the next day who explained that they had 3 different religions there: Bhuddism, confusionism and a third one which I can't rememeber(!) to form one new religion. They were chanting and playing musical instruments which was interesting to see.

The inside of the temple with the people chanting

Our next stop was the Cu Chi tunnels. I'd been really looking forward to this as I find all the history really interesting. Our tour guide first showed us a bamboo trap, which was a cut out rectangle of grass which would flip round to reveal bamboo spikes. 

                 Bamboo trap

 They had dug wall type thing to hide behind, and one entrance to a hideaway where the last person would throw a grande to stop any enemy soldiers from following them. 

The hideout where the last one in would throw a grenade 

The entrances to the tunnels had been widen from the museum as the Vietnamese were so small that we would not have been able to fit! The floor was lower than I expected it and you would need to duck down straight away in order to get inside. 

Me going into the entrance to the tunnels

To go into the tunnels themselves, you had to go down 2 flights of stairs. They were about a meter and a half high so you had to crouch right down in order to get in. It was an interesting experience but was getting a bit claustrophobic so I chicken out on the first 20 meters rather than doing the full 100m. 

         A US tank

Some of the traps used

This is an air hole for the tunnels which had been disgused 

We saw some weapons used as well,a few more traps, and we watched a video about the war. On the way back, I got my first taste of Ho Chi Minh City, 

rush hour! There were so many bikes! When I got back to the hostel, I ended up going out with some people from my hostel. 

There are SO many bikes!

I'm a couple of days behind on my blog, but have just arrived in Mui Ne.

See ya all !