Day 67 - Cu Chi Tunnels

Left early this morning to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Its located 70 km NW of HCMC which is a system of tunnels deep underground with several floors. This labyrinth stretched for over 200 km underground where the Cu Chi people gathered to eat, plan battles and have meetings during the war. It was quite incredible how there was an entire underground community here. The people here were ingenious with the way they made traps and weapons from salvaged materials.

At one point we could go through the tunnels. The part you are allowed to explore apparently has been widened for tourists. A larger European woman went in and came right out and said "Those tunnels are very narrow" as she couldn't fit through them. I went down through them and I barely had much space around my body in the tunnels. If they had been widened I wonder how narrow they used to be. Probably narrow enough just to crawl through.

One of the main tourist attractions here is to shoot a gun, any gun. They had machine guns and AK47s. You paid per bullet. After the crowds here I almost thought it would be a good idea to shoot one. There were so many tours here at the same time that it was ridiculous. Just swarms of people everywhere as most people book half day tours that all leave at the same time in the morning. The tour was super rushed and only spent 1 1/2 hours here before we got back on the bus for the 2 hour ride back to HCMC. I'm really glad I bought a Vietnamese sandwich before the journey for 10000D. It was by far the best I've ever had, way better than in Toronto. Granted it was full of mystery meat but it was so tasty that didn't matter!

The fruit on this side of the world is absolutely amazing. Definitely going to miss it at home. The bananas are ridiculously good, probably because they are allowed to ripen on the tree. I don't know if I can go back to eating starchy Canadian bananas after this. I'm seriously considering extending my trip and going to see more of the world.