Day 4 started early as we boarded the bus at 8 AM. Honestly, I probably have more pictures to share than words to say. To start, here’s a cool picture I took!

During the bus ride, I got to see Vietnam from an outside perspective. It was very different from the city view. One common thing I observed was that many people don’t have doors on their houses. Instead, they have gates at the front, and the rooms are quite open. I could even see a man relaxing on his living room couch, watching TV from the bus. There was also so much farming land. I could see rice fields and coconut trees everywhere.

We arrived at the Cuchi Tunnels, where we were introduced to some of the planes left behind by our country. The air bomber was in great shape, but the helicopter was pretty beat up. Here’s a picture of what I might have looked like during the war back in the day.

Personally, I never thought the war was necessary. While it had the right idea of trying to stop the spread of communism, once the Vietnamese showed no signs of surrender and began using brutal tactics that caused unnecessary deaths, the U.S. should have backed out sooner.

I got a broad perspective on what it was like to be a Vietnamese guerrilla back in the day. There were three different tunnels I got to crawl through. At one point, I thought I was lost in the tunnels, and the heat was starting to get to me. Personally, there was a slight air conditioning effect in those tunnels, which makes me wonder how the Vietnamese guerrillas didn’t die from heat exhaustion.

At the end of the day, the one takeaway from the history of this country that I want to remember is the success and significant impact Ho Chi Minh had. I spent most of my time in Ho Chi Minh City, and all the statues and the reverence people have for him make me fascinated by the people.