Waking up is always a struggle after a great night’s sleep. The sleep that I have been getting here has been amazing mostly due to how tired I am from long days and the heat. We had an early morning where we had to be in the bus at 7:45 so I did not feel the need to go and explore another coffee shop. We started our journey to the Củ Chi tunnels led by our fabulous guide Tuan.
Our first stop on our trip was to Net Viet which we got a little tour of how they make their art. This is a place that the handicapped work on incredible pieces of art made from eggshells and some with pearls. The process was so intriguing, and it was said that they take a very long time to finish each product. As amazing as this place was, I could definitely sense that it was more for tourists. Not only from the other bus tour that showed up a little after ours, but also from the prices of the art. I understand that all of those were handmade, but they were very expensive compared to anything we have seen for souvenirs. Another observation that I have made is that all the places for tourists typically have some workers that go around helping a lot. They feel like salespeople. Constantly talking with you about anything you look at or explaining things they are always there and speaking English. This has happened to me at a couple places already, where you can tell, they are trying to get us to spend our money.
Then we continued our journey to the tunnels to have a tour of and explore them. We crawled through the tunnels that were made a little wider to fit the larger tourists, but the tunnels were in the exact spot they used during the war, and you still had to constantly bend over to fit through. The tunnels were used by the guerrilla fighters with many different rooms. They used hills that looked like they were made by termites as ventilation hidden in the forest. The guerrilla fighters would be working in the farms during the day, and the Americans would not fight them. But once it was nightfall they would change into uniforms and use the tunnel systems and attack the US soldiers. The smallest entrance was so interesting, and I was almost sure there was no way anyone would fit. But sure enough, one by one whoever wanted to go in got down the super small entrance and popped back from a different one (I also scared Chris when I was down there so that was fun). In the next tunnel Chris and I explored a small room off the tunnel path which had a cool water well but then I turned my flashlight to the ceiling and there was a bat up there. It scared the crap outta me, so I guess that was karma for scaring Chris before. After the tour we got some ice cream and hydration because it was the hottest day we have had here yet. Perfect for the day that we spent the most time outside, right? But you get to a point where you are just sweaty and hot, and you don’t feel it as much which is nice. A takeaway from this trip is that we genuinely caused fear in the Vietnamese people, so much they would add traps to their doors to kill uninvited guests. And this was only from the governments having conflict. Tuan put it perfectly saying the Vietnamese people like Americans and most American people like Vietnamese but the conflicts in the government can shift the perspectives of everyone. I feel like Americans especially have trouble with getting over the past conflict with Vietnam, probably because we lost. The Củ Chi tunnels were amazing and the history behind everything brought great perspectives from both sides of the war.
Later we traveled into the city and walked around Saigon Square for a bit. This was almost like a Vietnamese market where we could haggle for lower prices. I was actually able to use some knowledge about anchoring in negotiating to make sure to get the best possible deals and get a little bit of practice before we go to the market next week. But I also want to go back to this market to find more treasures because we did not spend too much time there. Unsurprisingly I had another great day and unforgettable experiences in the tunnels and the people.
