We had to get up bright and early on Thursday to visit the
Cu Chi Tunnels. Luckily, the hour and a half drive out of the city into the
countryside wasn’t all that bad at all; I immediately fell asleep on the bus on
the way there. When we arrived, we sun-screened and bug sprayed up and walked
up to the area reserved for tourists. The tour started with a short video about
the history of the tunnels in regard to the war in Vietnam. It was not
something that I was expecting fully, but it was still interesting to see, once again providing a second side to the history that was made.
The tour progressed with a few of us trying one of the
entrances to the tunnels from the ground. It was basically a trap door that you
could climb into and slide a rock over top of you when you were inside. It was
so incredibly small! We next saw another entrance, this one a bit bigger. It
allowed us to see down inside. The tour continued
with a weapons display. There was an on site shooting range that you could fire
at and an American tank on display. These made me a bit uncomfortable.
The best part of the day trip was going down inside of the tunnels, though. I
was surprised at how big the tunnels were; I was expecting much smaller, though
I still did have to crouch significantly. The tunnels made me a bit
closterphobic, but not uncomfortably so. Soon after, however, I was told that
the tunnels we had explored had been made bigger so that people could actually
go inside (about two times the size of the actual tunnels). I would have never
fit!
Jackie going down into the tunnel
We left Cu Chi and made our way to a Caoist temple at Tay
Ninh. I was a little bit disappointed that we could not stay here longer, but I
found it very interesting regardless. We got to see the beginning of a ceremony
right around noon. Caoism combines the best of the major religions of the world
all into one. It was interesting to see the French influence; Victor Hugo is
one of their three major saints. Also, the presence of the all-seeing eye was
an interesting addition.
Temple at Tay Ninh
We stopped for lunch on the way home. When I wasn’t dozing off on the
bus, I was looking out at the countryside. It was a completely different view
than from that I have been accustomed to here. Rice paddy fields stretched to
the horizon, and it was almost like beholding an entirely different country.
As soon as we got back home, we rushed to the Ben Than
market to get some last minute souvenir shopping finished. I did not buy all
that much this time, but it was still fun to go. We finished
up there at around 5:15 and headed over to a t-shirt selling graphic tees with
Vietnamese slogans. Some people wanted to head over to the Adidas store,
but I stayed outside the shop and tried iced tea sweetened with sugar cane
before walking to the European place for dinner.
Rockin' the Ray Bans
Beefsteak for dinner was awesome, and I was surprised that I
could get so much food for only about 60,000 dong. I sure will be cheap with my money when I get back home to
the United States! We all paid for the UEF students. The most random part of
the night has to be either eating ostrich or getting crème brulee for dessert…in Vietnam!
We headed back to the hotel and after much contemplation, we
decided to go to Lush one last time. When we arrived, it was practically empty,
so we posted up on the couches that are normally otherwise reserved before heading back home shortly after.
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