Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I'm taking my stats back. The taxi driver was a liar as well trying to con us! Our tour guide yesterday for the Cu Chi tunnels told us that 9 million people live in Saigon...with 6 million motorbikes. That's 2 in every 3 people. He also said that it only takes 1 day to get your motorbike licence. You can tell. He also told us not to get upset today as Vietnam now has no problem with France or America. The tour is more about how the people pulled together to survive. I was a bit worried with my reputation for crying at anything!!
Our first stop was a small centre where people handicapped by the war make laquarware items. Everything from mosaics, paintings, vases, jewellery boxes to plates and cutlery. They were very nice.
The Cu Chi tunnels were really interesting. The original sizes of the tunnels were completely ridiculous. You could have a go hiding in an original one. About 6 people did and at least half of them got stuck coming out! It was pretty muddy and looked hard work pulling yourself out so I gave it a miss. Ben didn't want to do it either. The traps that they used to kill the American soldiers and their dogs were very clever. They would even put traps inside the network of tunnels. They also used to leave cooked chilli's and spring rolls near the traps to trick the dogs so that they would be trapped and lead soldiers to the traps, thinking the smell was the Vietnemese. They would also steal soap from the Americans so that they would start to smell the same as those they were hunting to confuse the dogs. Our tour guide was laughing at some things that the American soldiers did. They would pump water down the tunnels to try to drown or flush out the people. As there were 3 different levels and taller rooms on each level they never had enough water to do any damage so the Vietnamese were happy for the shower to cool them down! They would also put scorpions and cobra snakes down the tunnels to kill them but they were used for food which was much appreciated! There were quite a few craters from bombs that had been kept around the woods where the tunnels are located. They were really big, even though they must have naturally filled in a little. You can imagine the damage that they did. Our last stop was actually going into the tunnels. They had been widened though I wasn't looking forward to it. It was 100m long but you could get out at every 20m. We got out at the first 20m as everyone else was and I couldn't see any further in! But we got back in and did to about 60m. We only got out as it was so hot and sweaty and 2 girls in front were having a laugh taking photos for ages whilst we had to wait for them to finish. They seemed to have a problem with the zoom being on but I didn't care! Then further along 1 of them started to cry and panic so we'd had enough of them and turned back to the last exit. It would have been nice to do it all but a tunnel's a tunnel really! It wasn't as small as I thought it would have been but anyone much bigger than me (most people!) must have been more uncomfortable. I noticed a few lads got out pretty quickly, though they were hard enough to fire the AK-47's and machine guns on offer earlier! (Naturally we passed, but it was the most jumpy lunch I have ever had waiting for everyone, they are so loud!) Anyway, the tunnels. There were bits to jump up and jump down going along, it wasn't all straight and there were quite a lot of twists and turns. The actual tunnels we were in were the 2nd level down, around 6m deep. I did get a bit dirty but not too bad. You couldn't stand up, it was more of a crawl. I walked straight into Ben's bum at 1 point as although there were oil lamps dotted around, they weren't too regular. You also needed a guide to lead you down as well. There were lots of turn offs along the tunnel we went down so I imagine it was very easy to get lost!
After the tunnels we went to the War Remnants Museum. It had a completely different atmosphere to the tunnels. It was quite hard to take at times. Yes, it's only one side of story yet it had enough proof and photographs of that side. Americans slaughtering entire villages, beheading children, killing pregnant women and posing for photographs next to people they'd beheaded. Not exactly a profile picture you'd want for Facebook is it? The main problem from the war was the illegal use of the chemical Agent Orange. It's effects not only caused many problems for those that it burnt, deformed and gave conditions such as cancer to, but it affects those people's children and then even their children. It is predicted that its effects will take around 100 years to be phased out. That's not a belief for the war you are fighting, it's against human rights and effecting so many innocent people. Some people were put in contact to it by drinking contaminated water or eating fish that had been in said water. The effects it has on those born with it can be anything, physical or mental. A lot of pictures were of limbless or deformed children, children being born attached, even a girl who would have to be kept in a cage all her life as otherwise she would put anything she could see in her mouth and chew, so she was a danger to herself. It was just really, really sad.
Things that are annoying me at the moment:
* Air con. Ok, so I would probably die without it, but I'm sick of waking up in the morning with a really sore throat and coughing my guts up and sneezing all morning. It's taken me a while to get to this stage but now it's every day I feel like this for the last couple of weeks. Even places recently where we've only had a fan rather than air con it's had the same effect
* People travelling on their own who talk far too much. They know everything, don't ask questions back to you and only care about themselves. They're usually sat behind me on buses as well. I know more about them than myself sometimes
* Bad dreams. I just keep having scary dreams all the time. This will get worse once the malaria tablets start so I dread to think what's to come!
P.s. The picture is of the yappy dog that growls at us all the time!
- comments