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Today we left the group home stay and headed towards Cu Chi to take a tour of the tunnels that were used during the Vietnam war. We were provided information on how they made the tunnels and the different purposes of each. Was explained how the Vietnamese used bamboo sticks to provide the tunnels with air and to hide the airway they built termite hills around the opening of the hole. Apparently, this was eventually discovered by American dogs; as they were trained to smell the "Vietnamese". So once the dog could smell the the fake termite hill over the real ones, the Americans would start shooting them. So it get around that the Vietnamese started putting chiles on the termite hills, which helped for a while until they started putting too much chiles on and the dogs would then start to cough -again informing the Americans that was the fake hill. Eventually, the Vietnamese purchased a bunch of American products like after shave; in order to smell American. This ended up proving to be very successful and the dogs were then unable to tell a fake vs real termite hill from another - interesting tidbit.
We then were shown some of the devices they used to trap the soldiers. All of them looked painful and deadly; as not only Americans fell into the traps but civilians.
We then stopped at a gun range and I shot 5 bullets from a Cabernet. That was exciting.
Then we were able to go through part of the tunnel. The tunnel was very complex and very squishy; you had to bend over in order to walk through. It was very dark and in some places it got incredibly hot. The total time for the walking in the tunnel was about 10 minutes but it was great to see how they lived and how amazing the tunnel was and the success it brought in ending the war.
After the tunnels, we headed back to our hotel were we met up with the rest of our group. In total there are 30 of us; in which 11 or 12 of us are Canadians. We all went out for dinner to get to know each other, then a few of us went to the bar. The bar was neat, drinks were insanely expensive (bottle of Stella cost about $10) but the bar over looked the city and it was an impressive view. *Can't remember the name of the bar.. some said it was Skybar, but I will double check.
- comments
Ian That sounds really cool. Would have been neat to shoot the gun. But sounds like a nice history day in getting to know how things were during the war. Do you think I would have fit in the tunnels?
Bethany Ian - I doubt you would have fit in the tunnels! They look squishy... Neat pictures though...I like the one where he hides in the ground!
Paula Yeah, I doubt that you would have fit in the tunnels.. Sorry to say, if you came over here they would think you are a giant.