The BIG Gun
Today started off slighlty different from the previous few. I managed to sleep in until 7am, and while I was a little upset to miss my morning exercise routine, I welcomed a little extra sleep. After a quick breakfast we were off to the Cu Chi tunnels promptly at 8 am.
Despite being only 60 km (36 mi) away it still took us between an hour and an hour and a half to reach the location due to the traffic. I realized something interesting, I have yet to see any speed limit signs. Not that anyone could reach the speed limit with the amount of people on the road, but still there must be a speed limit. Tung informed me that it’s 50 kph (30 mph) within the city and between 70 and 90 kph (42 – 54 mph) outside the city.
He also told me about the requirements of getting a drivers license. You must be 16 years old, which seemed standard enough and also must pass a 100 question test. Two things alarmed me about this, first, what are the one hundred questions? From my observations there are no rules of the road here, stoplights are suggestions, turn signals are optional, and cutting people off is standard practice. Secondly, you only need to get 20 questions right to pass the test, I could probably guess on every problem and still do that. It’s amazing how the travel system has developed into what it is, I’m sure there’s some things working behind the scenes that make everything work, I just don’t know what they are yet.
It was great to break out of the bustling city life and see some of Vietnam’s country side. We were able to see several rice fields with rice being harvested the old way (no machinery) by beating it against a basket until the seeds fell in. We also saw large forests of rubber trees all planted neatly in rows forming what appeared to be unending forest corridors. I didn’t realize that Vietnam had a large rubber production, and it was really nice to see some sights other than commercial buildings and restaurants.
We made it to the Cu Chi tunnels, and it was quite an experience. We first viewed a film about Cu Chi, which ran over some of the history and some of the basics of how the tunnels arose. Possible one of the best lines from the film was when they were trashing american’s for marching in and killing their people they said “… and they shot our schools, and our pots and pans.” Not the pots and pans, I mean that seriously crosses a line! After the video we ventured on down a trail that highlighted parts of the Cu Chi tunnels.
We first encountered a small entrance/exit hole, which must have been no more than a foot or 1.5 feet wide that people were allowed to stand in. Foolishly I decided to try this and after barely squeezing my way down, I attempted to get myself out and found out I was stuck.
Apparently this happens quite often, but I hated being one of those people who gets themselves stuck in a hole, after a minute of working my hips around I was finally able to pull myself out and our tour resumed.
A lot of the tour highlighted the booby traps that the Viet Cong used to hurt the American GIs and South Vietnamese soldiers. These were vicious spiked contraptions, and there were many different deadly designs. It’s amazing that one of the the first weapons, a sharp pointed stick or rock, is still extremely effective in modern warfare. The Viet Cong’s attention to details was also impressive. They were thinking of things that I would never have thought of, like filtering their smoke from the kitchens through an underground tunnel to a safe distance away from the actual complex so as not to be located.
One of the highlights of the visit was the shooting range where for a small fee of $15 I purchased 10 shots with an M60 machine gun, the machine gun that was usually mounted on helicopters. This was an amazing experience, and despite having taken trap and skeet this past semester I don’t think anything could have really prepared me for the rush of firing this gun. See the video at the bottom of the post for the full experience.
Finally, we actually got to travel through some of the tunnels. The entire group went through the modified tourist tunnels, which was no easy task. The roof was about 3 or 4 feet tall, and the width was maybe 1.5 times my width. Thankfully our guide had a flashlight, and the tunnels were lit at periodic intervals. After this, Tung, Dr. Nishikawa, Johnny, and I took a trip through one of the original Cu Chi tunnels from the war. These were even shorter and narrower, and included 3 different levels of tunnels. It was an amazing experience, and it was crazy to think about how the Viet Cong carried their equipment and literally ran for their lives through these tunnels. That must have required extreme athleticism, and determination.
When we returned to our hotel we watched a documentary called “Workers’ Dreams” which followed several Vietnamese girls attempts to make a living as factory workers. It explained how temp agencies would come to their villages and straight out lie to them about being able to secure them a steady job and better future. In reality the job would usually only last 2-3 months, and in order to get a job, the girls had to generally pay the temp agency approx. 1 month of their salary. This film helped open my eyes to some of the things you really don’t think about as a tourist. Everything seems so happy and light when you are purely vacationing, but in reality there are still injustices happening in the background.
The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and enjoying the remainder of our time in Ho Chi Minh City, I stopped by a wine bar near our hotel and had a nice glass of Two Oceans Pinotage from South Africa. I was curious if there were any Vietnamese wines, but I didn’t see any on the menu, so I’m guessing not. Tomorrow we head north to Da Nang, I’ll continue to keep you posted on my various adventures.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNJ1E_RLW30]