Cu Chi, Cu Chi, Ya Ya Dada (Hey, hey, hey)

At exactly 8am this morning, we we're picked up by a tourist bus with an over-energetic tourist guide for our Cu Chi Tunnel tour. Since we were the last ones to be picked up, we were all seated separately.

The trip to Cu Chi took about two hours. We had a quick stop-over at the Handicapped Handicrafts, where, obviously, all the workers are handicapped. Instead of going directly to the stores, we were ushered towards the working area and were given a quick lecture on the process of making the handicrafts. It's quite educational... But it would also make you feel too guilty to bargain for cheaper prices. Hehehe! (Alia, though, bought a pair of sandals with straps that were customized to fit her feet perfectly... Causing the bus to wait for her and the other tourists' eyebrows meet. Ooops...)

After a few minutes, we finally entered the Historic Relics and Cu Chi Tunnel Complex. We were directed towards a room with a TV monitor to watch the history of the Vietnam war and the Cu Chi Tunnels. The room also has a map which outlines the complex tunnels of Cu Chi, with some going straight to Ho Chi Minh City. There was also a diorama to show the different levels of the tunnels and how each level functions apart from the rest. It's really interesting, though, and we can't wait to see what these tunnels look like.

True enough, the second part of the Cu Chi tour brought us to a small entry to the tunnel. After our over-energetic guide explained how this entry is being used, another guy, dressed as a Vietcong during the Vietnam war, demonstrated the clever way of finding these types of entry points, getting into one and camouflaging the lid. Tourists were also encouraged to try this out and of course, we we're in the forefront! Papahuli ba naman kami?! (Photos in our Multiplt site: 2008 - Vietnam)

Other parts of the tour were the demontrations of paper making, a mechanical dramatization of how weapons were made during that time, the different traps to kill the enemies, the shooting range, etc. The highlight, of course, is getting and walking inside the tunnel!

All of us went inside the tunnel, from the smallest (Francis) to the biggest (Dennis) in the group. The walk (or should we say, crawl) was just short but walking duck-style or walking in a bent position was really hard, not to mention how hot it was inside. Despite the difficulty, we managed to take several photos inside as the rest of the tourists behind us complained. Getting out of the tunnel was, indeed, a breath of fresh air! How on earth did the Vietnamese do this during the war? Whew!
There were still other interesting sights in the area, but we're really beat. The tunnel could really take up a lot of energy... So in the 2-hour travel back to the city, we we're all asleep.

At De Tham Street, we briefly had lunch at one of the restaurants there. The manager was kind enough to give directions to Ben Tanh Market. So immediately after lunch, which was about 3pm already, we braved the streets of Vietnam to shop at the market.

Streets of Vietnam: Cross at your own risk.

Ben Tanh Market is a piece of heaven for all shopaholics! It's a market, alright, very much like the Divisoria malls we have here. It's clean, it's crowded, but most importantly, it's cheap! There were so many things to buy, but we had little time to shop. The stalls close at 5pm and the entire market at 6pm. We went back to our hotel promising to start the tour early the next morning so we can go back to the market before we leave for Singapore.

For more of our Cu Chi photos, log on to Multiply, add us as your contact and check out photos: 2008 - Vietnam .