Cu-Chi Tunnels

     I had learned about the tunnels in a Vietnam War class in college and had to see them since we were so close.  These tunnels were used by the Viet-Cong guerrillas during the Vietnam War or as they call it the American War.  Cu-Chi was an area north of Ho Chi Minh and based on our understanding American soldiers were never really able to clear the entire area of Viet-Cong.   You can read more about the tunnels here. 

Can you see the hidden door?

There it is!

This was the second hole I tried to get into and I barely fit.  My shoulders would have been a tough squeeze but I imagine if I were being shot at I would have made it happen.

A tunnel rat.

This is the bomb crater from a B-52 strike.  There were a good number of these on the site.

     It was very interesting learning about the tunnels.  In some places they're dug three levels deep.  They would have dorm rooms, kitchens, medical clinics, meeting rooms etc.  We saw a kitchen with a exhaust tunnel that was about 50 yards away from the actual room.  The guide said they'd usually only cook in the morning when there was still fog on the ground to disguise the smoke. 

    There are over 75 miles of tunnel in Cu-Chi network alone.  The tunnels were tug by teams of four, working at night.  Two pairs would dig holes down a specified depth depending on the level they were digging that night.  Starting about 30 feet from one another they'd then connect the holes.  The dirt that was removed from one hole would be dumped in the empty hole from the previous nights dig so that only the tunnel would remain.  Also, in case you ever need to do this remember that the holes you dig to go down should be square shape not round so that when you start digging the tunnel you know which direction you are headed.  When you dig the tunnel it should have a point at the top to keep if from caving in as well.  If you need anymore help email me and I'll send you some blueprints.

    Bri's enjoyed reading and watching youtube videos about the American soldiers called tunnel rats upon our return.  It was their job to clear tunnels when American troops found them.  They were some brave/crazy men.  I guess there is a thin line between those two things.  I crawled through about a 30-40 meter stretch.  It was part of a 100 meter stretch that had been widened for foreigners to travel through.  It zig-zagged for the safety of the men in the tunnel and it was not a fun place to be if you were claustrophobic.  I didn't try it but I'm not sure I would have been able to turn around...I may have had to back out if needed.  It was quite an experience.

    We also went to the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh.  Mostly there was a lot photographs and it painted a very poor perspective of the US involvement in the war.  Bri was a little surprised at how harsh it was towards the American based on the little she'd learned about it in school and on the way the Vietnamese treated us while we were in the country as tourists.  The museum was a fine place to visit and it was interesting to see that perspective but it definitely felt one sided.  The Cu-Chi tunnels felt much more authentic and we'll never forget it.

Matt

More Motorbikes

    I hope to never know what real mortar rounds sounds like when they come down first hand but as the Chinese New Year finally ends today there are explosions happening every 5 minutes and from all directions.  It is fitting however that they're coming just as Bri and I finished watching the Super Bowl.  I almost feel like now that this football seasons is gone China is celebrating the new year...the year of the Chiefs.
    One tidbit of information for anyone planning a trip to China.  Don't order french fries from McDonalds when it is being delivered.  I've tried over and over and I regret it every time.   They just can't get them delivered hot and we all know cold fries are horrible.  Bri pointed out that it is nearly unamerican to order McDonalds and not get fries and I have to agree.  That's why I think they should have the delivery man fry them on the spot upon delivery.  It would also spread the smell of fries which would make other tenants of the building hungry for the Golden Arch.  That's probably enough of my good ideas for one day.  I'm posting some more pictures of things you might see on the road in Vietnam because Bri's last post generated considerable interest on the topic.

You can use a cyclo as a cab

Yes, that is a refrigerator on his motorbike

It must be iBike by Apple.

These yellow flowers were for sale EVERYWHERE.  They're good luck for the new year.  He's hoping the lucky flowers help him drive home safely.

This guy is holding what I can only guess is a frame while the guy in front drives.  Don't worry they have helmets on.  We also saw a driver and rider carrying a 10-12 foot pipe.

When your baby just fall asleep, take her for a drive.  Works every time.

There is only four here.  An American we met who has lived in Ho Chi Minh since 1998 told us that he doesn't bat an eye when he sees five but the most he's ever seen was six people on one bike at a time.  He said the last person didn't have a seat they were just piggy backing the person in front of them.

Babies don't need to wear helmets as long as you have a high chair for them to set on

We didn't see any livestock on motorbikes except for on postcards.  There were pictures of a slaughtered cow or live pigs balanced on the back of motorbikes.  I probably don't need to go on, you're surely getting an idea of why the motorbikes in Vietnam left such an impression on us.  Perhaps this fact won't surprise you but Vietnamese hospitals are among the world leaders in very few things.  They do however rank among the top hospitals in the world at treating head trauma....I wonder why.    If you still can't get enough motorbikes check out this blog for another fellow's top ten motorbike pictures.

Matt

The Road to Nha Trang

     The title of this blog sounds like a life changing non-fiction book.  Well, that is only half right; life changing.  Let me start at the beginning.  When we began planning our trip to Vietnam we planned on going to a small beach town partway up the eastern coast called Nha Trang.  I had found reviews of beaches and this was supposed to be the best.  We booked our hotel rooms and a commuter flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang.  After everything was purchased we received an email from Vietnam Airlines saying that actually they did not have a flight for us and we were on a waiting list.  Chinese New Year is one of their busiest times of year and while I was not surprised that this happened I was disappointed that they did not mention any of this on their website.  We considered going somewhere else as staying in Ho Chi Minh was not really an option because nearly all of their businesses would be closing for the celebration.  I looked up other beach destinations and could not find accommodations.  We may have been able to get there easily but we would not have a place to stay when we arrived. I looked at the map, Nha Trang is only about 440 km from Ho Chi Minh City.  That would be the same as driving from Stratton to Denver and back. That didn't seem too far to travel so I began searching for other ways to get to Nha Trang.

By train: you cannot book these tickets on the Internet, you have to hire a travel agent to purchase the tickets for you.  Fine.  We try that...and they were sold out.

By bus: the tickets only cost $25 each and buses leave Ho Chi Minh almost hourly for Nha Trang.  After reading some travel blogs they said that this is an excellent way to travel……. if you want to die.  Hundreds of people die every year riding buses in Vietnam.  Last year a bus driver decided to try and beat an oncoming train, he misjudged it. Everyone died.  Hmmmmm, no thanks.

Renting a car: It is not easy for foreigners to rent cars and if this was an option that we were seriously considering we would have had to start the process much earlier.
Hiring a driver: This was the most expensive option but was safer than a bus and the first travel agent told us that it is a 4 hour drive. The second agent clarified that it would be a 10 hour drive. We found these time discrepancies were quite common in Vietnam.  They're similar to the time discrepancies in Shanghai.  Maybe something will be ready in an hour or maybe in about two days....

     We just wanted to get to the beach so we chose to hire a driver.  Our hotel arranged it for us and it was going to cost us $280.  They were going to pick us up at 4:00 AM because we wanted to spend as much as the day as possible in Nha Trang and we figured we could sleep part of the trip.  On our motorbike tour that day our tour guide said that his buddy would take us for $150.  He was sure that he would be there at 4:00 so we switched plans and hired our tour guide’s buddy to take us instead of the other driver.

4:00 AM:  Matt and I are sitting outside of our hotel all packed and ready for our driver to arrive.

4:10 AM:  The concierge calls the driver to check on when he will arrive and the driver says that he will be there in 15 minutes.

4:40 AM:  Still no driver.  He is now not answering his phone.

4:41 AM: Matt calls our tour guide (Matt’s baby kanagaroo) and asks him if he knows why the driver hasn't arrived.  Saul is very upset and does not know why his friend would do this.

4:41 and 30 seconds: I get sad.

4:42 AM: I decide that we should go to the airport and fly stand by to Nha Trang.

4:45 AM Hotel concierge gets a hold of another driver and they will be at the hotel in 15 minutes.  We will pay this driver $305.  That's more than two Greyhound tickets of comparable distance but much more comfortable.  We were just glad to be leaving.  Finding a driver on New Years Eve was a near miracle. It would be the same as finding someone to leave their family on Christmas Eve to drive strangers for the day and then drive back.

    We began our journey and I went to sleep.  Once in a while he would hit the breaks hard and I would momentarily wake up.  Then the honking began, I could not tell through my earplugs if we were the ones being honked at or doing the honking.  I had no idea what to expect when I sat up and I was shocked.  The cows, the chickens, the sheep, the goats, the buses, the shuttles, the semi-trucks, the motorbikes and the van we were riding in all share the same road.  There was no center-line, or outside line for that matter in parts of the road.  Houses, shacks and shops were only a few yards off of the ‘road.’  I figured out what we were honking at...anything that was in our way, regardless of which side of the road it was on at the time.

       When we would go around a slower vehicle whether it be a motorbike, a bus, a semi, or a man walking his cow we would honk.  It was a sign to both the person we were passing and the person coming straight at us whose lane we were now in, that we were in the area. If the honking did not move the oncoming traffic, a quick flashing of headlights was supposed to produce results.  This logic did not make sense to me because both cars were flashing their lights.  Whose job was it to get out of the way?  I don’t know because at that point my eyes were shut tight.

Just a stretch of the road.

     It was insane. Sometimes there were lines on the road.  Sometimes the road became dirt for a few yards.  It was unpredictable.  At one point our side of the road came to an abrupt stop due to construction.  There were no signs or anything... it was like a cartoon where the road just ends.  We had to drive on the other side of the road for a mile.  Luckily this was one of the small parts of the journey that was on four lane highway.  All but about 5-10 miles were two lane highways. 

    You can sum up their roads like this. There are to vehicle lanes.  The outer edge of each vehicle lane is actually the motorbike lane.  The vehicle lane also doubles as the passing lane for motorbikes.  The oncoming traffic lane is the passing lane for vehicles.  The shoulder of the road on each side is actually a sidewalk, made of dirt, and there will be an occasional motorbike on the sidewalk because he's going against the flow of traffic but doesn't want to cross to the correct side of the road.  Then outside the shoulder we're used to these things called ditches, that's where they put buildings. 

    I posted a mild video of the drive here. 

    Normally on a long road trip I like to read or listen to a podcast.  On this trip my full attention was on the road.  Always wondering when how we'd pass the next bus or whether that cow in the ditch would get spooked an jump into the road.  We saw five or six ambulances on the road during the day. They were probably for motorbikes we were told later, they're not very safe for long travels on the highway the source told us. 

Heading to Grandma's house for the New Year.  Many motorbike drivers wear masks to filter some of the dusty and polluted air they're breathing on the road.

     We stopped twice for bathroom breaks and some Vietnamese coffee and we ended up getting there in just about 7.5 hours.  By 3:00 we were showered, changed and eating on the beach.  More importantly, thanks to hotel concierge by 5pm we'd booked two tickets to fly back to Ho Chi Minh Thursday morning.  The cost for the 50 minute flight for two people... $130 total.  Memories from the "Road to Nha Trang".... priceless.

Saigon Unseen

     As you can imagine, trying to experience as much of a country as possible while also enjoying a vacation can be a difficult thing to balance.  We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formally known as Saigon), Vietnam Friday night late and didn't make it to our hotel bed until around 1am.  Our morning began at 8:30 am with a tour that Bri had found online called Saigon Unseen.  Normally when we travel we tend to steer away from tours but we had decided that a tour would be the best way to see as much of the city as possible in a short amount of time.  Of course this wasn't your run of the mill air-conditioned van or a double-decker bus tour.  In a town of 10 million people and 5 million motor bikes how could you pass up the chance for a tour on the back of a motor bike!

Matt on the bike with our lead guide Saul. He spoke more than enough English for our tour purposes.

     The weather was beautiful and sunny.  Bri and I were basking in the warm weather compared to the cloudy, clammy cold we were experiencing in Shanghai.  Bri took this picture at the beginning of the day and then spent the rest of the day trying to find a caption for what I looked like on the bike with Saul.  My favorite two descriptions were that he was a ninja turtle and I was his shell and that I'm a kangaroo and I just let Saul out of my pouch for a bit of sunshine.  Feel free to make your own captions and have a laugh at my expense.

     Besides the allure of the motor bike the second draw of this tour was that they took us to parts of Ho Chi Minh a tourist might not stumble onto in their first couple days.  We drove through the main park which was packed with people preparing for the Lunar New Year celebrations.  Then it was off to a couple of interesting markets packed with Vietnamese shopping for the holiday.  Saul said it was only slightly busier than normal but I couldn't see how the first market could have held anymore people.  The interesting/disturbing thing about both markets but especially the first larger market was that nobody bothered to get off their bike.  You just motored through at a snails pace and pulled off when you needed to buy something.  There was a parking area that was packed with scooters so I assume some customers or stall keeper got off their bike but it sure didn't seem like it when we were driving through the chaos.

Most of the people in the crowded middle of the street are moving along slowly on motor bikes.

     After the market we drove around the alleys and side streets.  Bri and I immediately felt that generally speaking the people of Ho Chi Minh were more friendly than the people of Shanghai.  Next Saul wanted to show some of the developing parts of Ho Chi Minh.  We saw some tall condo/apartment buildings but nothing you wouldn't see in KC or Denver.  Then he took us to a section of town that had been a poor and crumbling part of town.  It had been cleared of tenants and most of the "buildings" had been demolished in order to prepare the land for development.  I was surprised at how optimistically he spoke about what the developers would build and how he wanted me to continue looking at the billboard that had illustrations of what was coming.  On the other hand Bri and I were asking, "What happened to all of the people who lived here?" and "Who is living here now?".  There were make shift homes which were nothing more than campsites all around the area and it didn't look like any development had started at all.  Saul said the money for the development had stalled but it was still coming.  The people camping were homeless and looking for jobs or people working temporary jobs in the city that did not want to find or pay for housing of higher standards.  It was bizarre when he even took us to the Fire God Temple which was in the same neighborhood but had been saved for spiritual reasons for now. It was surrounded by similar sights to the picture below.

One of the nicer shanties.

Bri had to use the toilet at the Fire God's Temple.  Yea, that's the toilet...the whole in the corner.  At least there was a partial wall for privacy.

     From the temple we saw another market and a cool river market where the boats just pull up and sell their goods along the river.  After stopping for Vietnamese coffee (very strong but usually mixed with sweetened and condensed milk and served on ice) which both Bri and I enjoyed all week we were taken see a mall and a more developed neighborhood.  Again Saul wanted to know my opinion on the "developed" part of town asking whether the mall looked like one in America.  I told him it looked similar from the outside but quipped that the parking lots were way too small because we all drive cars not motor bikes.

     There were other stops but the main highlights were lunch (surprised?), the Cao Dai Temple and the War Remnants Museum.  We'll talk about the War Remnants Museum and our thoughts regarding that when we share pictures from the Cu Chi Tunnels which we visited on our return to Ho Chi Minh later in the week.  Here are some pictures of the other two.

Stopped for some pho for lunch.

The alter at the Cao Dai Temple.  Each of the bright colors represents one of the major religions that were combined to form the Cao Dai religion.

     School starts tomorrow so its back to reality for us.  There will be more pictures soon.  In the meantime you're welcome to send us your favorite caption to the first photo with Matt and Saul on the motor bike.  We'll post any that make us laugh especially hard.

Matt

Trip to Vietnam Preview

We're heading back to Shanghai tonight. This trip has been more of an adventure than we planned for at times but also everything we had hoped. It was a great blend of seeing a new culture and spending some time on a beach. Here are some pictures from our hotel balcony in Nha Trang. A lot more pictures and stories will follow this week.








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Location:Trương Định,Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam