Day 184 Feb 4 2015 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam

are you sure I will be able to get out?

not much room even for the kids

Evy in the Cu Chi Tunnels at Ben Duoc

eating Mexican food in Vietnam which we ordered in english

Cho Ben Thant street market

Day 184  Feb 4  2015  Ho Chi Minh City  Vietnam

We hired a car and a driver to take us to the Cu Chi Tunnels at Ben Douc.  The distance to the tunnels is 57 km and the drive took over 2 hours with the first 13 km taking an hour.  We were in an accident on the way.  The driver was talking on his cell going through a traffic circle when he hit the back corner of a car.  The bumper on the car we were in was pulled forward and the front fender was fairly dented.  On the way back to the hotel we saw 2 accidents; with the crazy traffic here I am actually surprised we have not seen more.  I am still not used to walking into traffic to cross the road.  The trick seems to be 1. Don’t step in front of anything big that can’t go around you and 2. Walk slowly so the bikes and cars can swerve around you, it is a joyful experience.    The tunnels were very interesting, I was struck by the tenacity of the Vietnamese to build and live in such a construction for so many years during the war.  I found it difficult to breath in the tunnels and they now have a bit of air being pumped in.  The original tunnels were small and it was not easy to move through them as you had to be in an uncomfortable crouching walking position, even though the Vietnamese are smaller it would not have been pleasant for them.   I could not imagine living, sleeping and fighting from such a place.  The trap door to the first tunnel that the kids and I entered was the original size and I was hesitant to go down it as I had to put my hands above my head and let gravity pull me through the opening.  I was worried that I would not be able to go up the hole again; however the hole on the other end of the tunnel was slightly larger so I did not have a problem.  I guess they must have had tourists stuck in the past and as a result enlarged the exit hole.  On the walk into the tunnels we saw a green mamba snake and while we were in the tunnels we saw bats flying out of the tunnels.  There are somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250 km of tunnels in Cu Chi, all dug by hand!  In the evening we went to the Cho Ben Thanh street market.  I bought a watch for 200 000 dong ( aprox 12.50 cad ) the starting price was $750 000 dong just for me.  Evy figures we could have got it cheaper but it is the same watch I buy at Walmart 1 to 2 times a year and it cost around 25 cad.  I figure we got a good deal on the watch.  We also bought a new nike golf shirt for 200 000 dong to replace on that was destroyed by one of the laundry services we have used.