Cu Chi Tunnels & SSIS

So I have quite mixed feelings about my day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels yesterday and I think they were also shared by the people in my tour group.

Firstly, I felt like I was at some kind of theme park. Seriously, the tour guide pamphlet had a picture of a giant resort style swimming pool on the back. There was a shooting range which you could have your pick of weapons (for a cost of course between $1-$5 depending on the type of gun!). What else, oh yes, one exhibit with mannequins dressed up as Vietnamese fighters allowed you to press a button and the figures moved to show how they made their tools. A another exhibit demonstrated the various traps used to fend off the American soldiers too and I got to eat cassava (a root like vegetable) that was the staple for the Vietnamese at the time because it could be grown easily at the time.

I got the chance to crawl 100 meters into the tunnels which were ingeniously dug out to hide from the American soldiers. Very dark, very narrow in parts and the oxygen levels you could imagine were so small. I learned that people could live below for 20 years and the tunnels extended 200 km! Again, there was definitely a certain amount of propaganda throughout the whole exhibition which was about 1 1/2 hours drive away from HCMC itself.

After returning to HCMC in the afternoon, I successfully navigated my way in a taxi to South Saigon and District 7 where I was going to spend the next two nights with the Doty family in their humble abode. I went for an afternoon bike ride tour with David and the boys passing the school (and Blair walking home from work!), and the neighborhood. The whole area has wide streets and definitely a family style atmosphere with lots of kids playing in the courtyards or riding their bikes. Its so neat to know there are living and working families in such a motorbike city!

This morning I walked to school with Blair and got to spend the morning in her 4th grade classroom at South Saigon International School, as well as meeting many other teachers and join in on her P.E. class too! The school is right next to a river which has a great view and one that Blair has from her classrooms. One of her teacher friend's was so kind to let me hang out at their nearby apartment complex pool for the afternoon which I certainly cherished in the heat!

We have a big American Idol night planned at the Doty hale which I am excited for! I will head back into HCMC tomorrow and get on a bus at 1:30pm to cross the border to Phnom Penh and Cambodia, arriving into the city at around 8pm.

Only one more day as a Millionaire (20,000 Vietnamese Dong = about US $1D), but I think Cambodia has the same massive numerals for the money:)