We did however book an afternoon trip to the Cu-Chi Tunnels. We still had a good bit of time and I showed Basti a bit few of the places I had learned about the day before. First stop (not part of yesterdays tour) was a Pho place a little down the road. I think I could get used to this breakfast combination (Pho and Vietnamese Coffee).
Our tour was quite busy with 36 tourists on our bus (including the two German med. students). Our Vietnamese tour guide started giving us some details about the Cu-Chi Tunnels, which are very narrow and low tunnels in an Area (Cu-Chi) just 50 km north of Saigon, where the Vietcong during the "American War" as it is called in Vietnam have been hiding, regrouping and building weapons and were also used as hospitals.
The northern Vietnamese troops in these tunnels were protected from the Napalm bombings of the US Airforce.
These tunnels are between 2 and 8 meters under the ground and only a meter or less in height. The entire system spreads over 250 km of tunnels in the Cu-Chi area alone.
Our guide certainly had a preferred side from which he was telling us these stories (the Vietcong site). This scheme was continued when we arrived at the tunnels and watched an original 1967 propaganda film from the North. It was interesting to see these films, though.
The tour around some of the tunnel entrances was very interesting and the guide did show us interesting details, of how the traps (very Indiana Jones Style) worked and where the ventilation holes were hidden in tree stumps and things like that.
Unfortunately our group was very large and this took away a bit of the experience. We couldn't always see what was going on or we had people pushing themselves into the front and all that.
And as it seems to be good custom in south-east Asia, if there have been many people who died in the area, and tourists come to visit it, you need to set up a shooting range.
Passing by was part of the tour and indeed a good few used the chance to shoot of a couple of rounds off anything from an AK47 to an M1 mounted on a Jeep.
What reminded me even more of a fun fair in Germany was the fact, that you could win historical DVDs and books the better your shooting was.
After the shooting range we could experience to crawl through one of the tunnels ourselves. Of course it was done up with a higher ceiling, concrete walls and lights and no sharp corners and emergency exits every 20m (I am serious...), but other than that it was an original tunnel. Yes, just like Disney Land.
Anyway, I'm not complaining, the trip was good (aside from the size of the group).
On the way back convinced the bus driver to pull over and let us off 20 minutes before we were back in Central Saigon, in order to satisfy his natural desires.
But no harm done, we were close to the train station which we wanted to visit anyway to buy a ticket to Mui Ne (about 200 km east of Saigon on the coast) for two days later.
So we walked a little off the beaten track along a river or canal with literally no foreigners in sight for probably 30 minutes.
After we got our tickets we took a cab back to the hostel and went out to finally get my Currywurst. It was not the best I have ever had but it did hit the spot, alright.
We continued a bit of our walking tour from the earlier in the morning and I could brag with the few details I remembered from the walking tour.
I also mentioned, when we passed the Rex Hotel, that this was the place where the US Army held it's press conferences back in the days and updated the people at home about the status of the war (often a little more enthusiastic than the actual events would permit).
This conference was held at 5pm, hence the name 5 o'clock follies.
Basti's suggestion to this information was to go and have drink in the place.
That's what we did. At the rooftop bar where the press conferences were held.
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