Day 35: 13/7/13
I was awake half the night last night for some reason and when I did sleep I was having mad dreams! It's apparently a side-effect to the malarone- everyone's having them!
The fan stopped working during the night too so I was roasting and, like the last home stay, the locals were all up working at 5 am so there was little chance of sleeping after that!
Breakfast was at 7 and we were all ready before that so obviously everyone else was kept up too! We got fried eggs and bread. Hannah's egg had a big daddy long legs in it and mine seemed to have a little spider or perhaps part of the daddy-long-legs!! Extra protein!!
We walked out to the head of the road to get the bus and dropped of the local guide we'd had when we got over the bridge to the mainland. Before he left he made a bird out of leaves of a coconut tree. He cut them in half and folded them like origami- it looked cool! I need to learn origami I think!
We were about three hours on the bus, but it didn't feel long as it was nice and cool and I caught up with the blog. I did see a young lad with no trousers on walking on the side of the road, in a town with shops and market stalls around and he bent down in the squat position like he was going to go for a number 2. Thankfully the bus moved quickly so I didn't have to see anything! They all sit in that squat position anyway- even old people sit like that with their bum practically on the floor. You'd imagine that it would hurt their knees but obviously they're used to it. They have really small seats and tables as well when they sit and drink on the side of the road.
The guide gave us lots of information about the Cu Chi tunnels we were going to that were used in the Vietnam war. As we were driving we drove over the tunnels. Cu Chi is a rural district and played a huge role in the war against the French and the Americans. Underneatht the ground there are living areas, stations, etc as well as the tunnels. After 1945 when the French returned from World War 2 the Vietnamese decided to fight against them. They knew they would have to hide if they were going to plan anything or if they had to hide weapons. They built weapons between some houses so the French wouldn't kill them. The French war was from 1945-1954. Viet Minh were the fighters in the French war, Viet Cong in the American war. Different names for different periods. The US landed in 1965. The North Vietnamese needed to come down here and have weapons but they needed somewhere for them so they built these tunnels and continued to building them during the war. Guerrillas were underground from 1965- 1975. 16,000 of them were down there. The tunnels are 250 km long, the longest tunnels in the world. There are three levels in the tunnels- the first one is 3 or 4 m down, the second is 5 or 6 and the third is 8-10m. They couldn't go deeper then that as there is a river. The river was a way to escape too. The second and third levels were the safest because the bombs wouldn't effect the land that deep in the ground. They used shovels and bamboo with a hat on the top, to dig out the tunnel- about 6m per day. In wet season, when it was softer, they dug 12m per day. Guerrillas went out at night to hit and run and then stayed in the tunnels during the day. So, lots of the communists were in the South, hiding in these tunnels and taking part in geurilla activity but all supporting North Vietnam. The area had been covered by bamboo but they are all gone as they use bamboo to make weapons.
We went in to the visitor centre for the tunnels. These ones are done up for tourists so the real ones would have been darker and smaller. First we went to a dining area where they had opened up the roof. In there you could stand up properly. They had a map to show where the tunnels were- they take over a huge area. They also had a model of the design of the tunnels. You could see the different levels and the escape tunnel to the river. They had little tunnels bringing oxygen into the deeper tunnels and they were disguised in ant nests or trees above ground. When they cooked, they were in the first level. They cooked in the early morning when it was a bit foggy and designed a chimney to bring the smoke many metres away from the tunnel so the Americans wouldn't know where they were. There were lots of booby traps at the entrances aswell so that if Americans came in they would be killed. If they happened to figure out all three levels, the Viet Cong just escaped to the river. In this area there was a video to watch of fighters in the Cu Chi area. It had been a rural peasant area but after being continuously bombed they became fighters and made their own bombs and everything. People were given medals for killing lots of Americans.
We saw the hatches they went down to get in to the tunnels. They were really narrow- it's a good thing they are small, skinny people! They were completely covered in leaves so you wouldn't even see them. We saw the air vents in the ant nests. There was a guy dressed as a soldier showing us the booby traps. Everything was made with spikes- trap doors and hatches all with spikes sticking out. They had a few different station areas with models of soldiers resting, making bombs, etc. There was an area which showed their shoes being made out of tyres too. They wore the shoes backwards to make it harder to track them. You could hear gun shots the whole time we were walking around which really added to the atmosphere. But it was because they had a shooting range. Ex- FCA Ann-Marie had a go- not a bother to her!
We went down the tunnels then. There was a wide entrance where you could walk in and then you had to crouch down. Very tall people would probably be more comfortable crawling but I was okay crouching. It was narrow though and dark, even though there were some lights at the side. There were corners here and there and an odd step up or down. I don't know how they did it without light! I got out at the first entrance- that was enough for me! Apparently it didn't get any smaller though. The people that kept going went down into the second level and you could stand up down there and then they came back up! It's seems most tourists don't go that far!
We went and had lunch then- a great selection of rice or noodles!! They tasted okay though! The 'happy room' afterwards had no lock and Steff opened the door not knowing there was only one toilet! Apparently she's quite a reputation for it!
We got the bus back to Ho Chi Minh then to get our bags and get ready for an overnight train tonight. Every time we're traveling you can see people on the motorcycles all wrapped up in gloves, scarves, face masks, etc- every part of them covered. It's because they have white skin. People with white skin are more attractive to them so young people try to stay as white as possible. Whiter people get more girlfriends or boyfriends! When they get married then they don't mind as much if they get darker!
We had about three hours when we got to the hotel to clean ourselves up and sort out some food for the train. We were given some rooms to shower in and I shared with Ann-Marie, Hannah, Steph, Sarah and Heather. It took ages for everyone to pack, repack and shower. I took the last shower as it seemed to take me forever to repack my bag!!
Karen and Hayden from the Cambodia trip were still knocking around for a few minutes when we landed so they called up to our room to say hello before they had to head off to the airport! There was just enough time though for Hannah, Steph, Hayden and Ann-Marie to take a photo of all their weird and wonderful talents like licking their nose!
We went to a French bakery down the road to get food. At that stage we only had time really to order a take away and the waitress was getting all confused with us! But eventually she manages to give us out baguettes for the train. Baguettes are huge over here- all the French influence!!
We'd no major wait around for the train. We got taxis to the station, went to the platform and it was there pretty soon. We didn't leave for a good while but that didn't bother us! I shared a cabin with Ann-Marie, Dan and Mike. They kindly gave us the bottom bunks! My rucksack and Ann-Marie's suitcase were too big to store so I'd to keep the rucksack at the bottom of my bed! Luckily I'm small so sleeping like that is never a problem! Hannah and Steph were in fairly quickly as their cabin was smelly. Others were passing then and came in for a chat and bit by bit people gathered. I think we got 11 altogether so 5 more joined us: Sarah, Heather, Iain, Joanne and the guide Khoa.
We were just chatting first and then someone decided we should tell scary stories. Heather had some good ones- she had been a head girl in a boarding school where they heard strange stories at night! Between everyone we heard a good few stories about people dying and ghosts and things. Ann-Marie had a story about a crazy guy at home with an axe!! We asked the guide for some Vietnamese ones when he came in and he thought we said goat stories. A man that is chancing his arm with the ladies is called a goat so we didn't know what he was wrangling about when he started talking about a train worker chatting one of the women in his cabin! Eventually he realised we meant ghost stories and he had some of those too. Out in the countryside people often report seeing floating heads and bodies, many say spirits of those killed in the war. He had a story too of going catching frogs when he was only a boy and getting lost and evdjng up in a graveyard which was kinda spooky.
We tried to lighten the mood then and requested a sing-song. I ended up singing Ratlin Bog- I always sing that one as you can teach the chorus to everybody. They all clapped along and joined in- they seemed to like the Irish craic. The guide sang a Vietnamese pop type song then- they really like singing over here too! It seems karaoke is what a lot of people do on a big night out!
The guide told us about his wife aswell and how they got married- it was mostly girls listening so we all loved that! It was interesting that when they decided to get married, his parents had to go to her parents and discuss it. The parents ask what animal of the Chinese zodiac you are (83 is the year of the pig!!) and the animals have to be compatible for them to be happy! The woman can't have a more dominant animal. It's also important that the man is earning good money. It sounded like people wouldn't really get married without their parents blessing or permission. It's the grooms parents requesting it too, not the other way around. I think in Cambodia anyway there was a mention of the men needing a dowry- I must look that up!! We had a lot of talk then about the year of the zodiac we were born in and what was going to be lucky for us!!
We had good Craic anyway on our first night train. By 10 we had to cut out the noise to be respectful to everyone else! I don't know if I'll get much sleep though- even though I'm awful tired from not sleeping last night!!