Mon 2nd Feb - War Stuff

Ugh – another early start – man, I need a holiday haha. I’m up first, as always – these boys are lazy! So I go downstairs and have brekkie before them. Again, Aaron is mister grumpy so cant be arsed talking to him until he’s had his darn coffee and breakfast! Its free here – yay – you get a slice of watermelon, bread, toast, fried egg and coffee J all good!
We wait on the tour people to get us for the Cu Chi Tunnel trip. We’re on the coach and head for about an hour where we stop off at this handicraft factory place. Special thing about this place is, all the arts n crafts that are made here are all made by Vietnamese people with special needs – or as the locals call it ‘Handicrafts made by the Handicapped’ - hmmm…not so PC over here methinks. Anyhoo, we have a walk through the production place and its amazing what they’re making and how they’re making it. There’s a section where they’re sticking egg shells to wood and crushing them on to make a pattern. Other sections include: painting, mother of pearl section, varnishing – its amazing to watch. And then we get guided into the gift shop! Typical but I buy a keyring only $2.
Off we go to the tunnels. We stay in our coach group and get taken to a place where we watch a mini documentary all about the vietnam war and how people lived in tunnels underground to survive. We get taken on the trail of where these people lived, showing us the traps they laid, the uniforms they wore and the weapons they made. Its incredible at how imaginative they are and what they came up with to survive. Aaron has a go at the shooting range on another type of big ass gun……..god knows which one – and its sooooooooo loud!!! Get chatting to 2 girls and a lad, who are from the UK, and they’re pretty much doing the same route as us but going down to Thailand through cambodia – instead of what we’re doing! They’re good chat and recommend a few places to stay and stuff to do in Danang – said its even cheaper up there haha!
We come up to where the actual tunnel entrances are and the guide says the tunnels have been widened for tourists to go under and they have lights in them as well…..hmmm I should be ok then……..aye whatever!!!!! I give it a go even though I am bricking it and scared of freaking out due to claustrophobia……didn’t last long!! The first bit down was fine and then it goes further down and you have to crouch down and walk like that – no danger! I chicken out and leave dave to it – Aaron agrees as well J We wait on Dave coming up 60 metres down the way and he comes up really sweaty and fairly manky! He said you practically have to crawl through it and there are parts you have to drop down further and lever yourself through a hole – OMG – could you imagine me doing that?! Hell no!!!!!!!!!!! so glad I didn’t!!!
Back on the coach and we all fall asleep – tiring this sightseeing malarkey!! We get dropped off at the war museum and more depressing gubbins. I’ve learnt so much being here but it don’t half make you hate Americans! What they did to these people – the pictures are horrific – I mean, I’ve seen pictures of people’s bodies dismembered by soldiers and parading their heads of sticks. Sick sick sick. You don’t get that in the press these days.
We manage to navigate our way back to the hostel – via KFC – yup, those boys are hungry again!! They have worms I tell ye! Boys go to bed for a snooze and I mess around on t’internet for a bit and write the obligatory postcards – wonder how long these will take to get home!? Hmmm…..tomoz is a relaxing day – checking out and then killing time until we get the sleeper train at 7.40pm- this should be fun – lets hope it is pretty good for Asian 1st class?!?

Hayley