April 11, 2014 - Cu Chi Tunnels. 90 km

Headed out from Saigon to see the Cu Chi Tunnels. This was our first test ride of our new (to us) motorbike.

It would be about 90 km round trip, doable (I thought) if we left noonish, and got back before dark.

We went to the Ben Duoc Tunnels, which are less traveled by tour groups, and were supposedly part of the original Cu Chi network of tunnels.

Here's the roadmap of our drive:

View Directions to Cu Chi Tunnels - Ben Duoc in a larger map

Tunnels were neat. Tickets were 90,000 VND, which consisted of two tickets, one at 70,000 VND, and the other at 20,000 VND.  We might have got stuck with a bonus foreigner ticket.  Oh well.

Once we got to the entrance to the tunnel site, the location of the actual tunnel tour was not very well marked.  Actually spent 10 minutes looking for it, and weren't sure when we found it.

After getting assigned a trusty tourguide, we were sat down and forced to watch a 20 minute propaganda video of the "American War" - what we know as the Vietnam War.  There are some skewed information, and items that were rather embellished.

As the tour guide found the entrance to the first set of tunnels, he gestured us to go it. Pulled the grate up, and one look, I said "No way in hell am I going to fit in there."

Here's Margaret for scale of the opening:

By some miracle and some contortionist efforts, I managed to fit in. But it required greasing me up, and the tour guide stomping on my head to get me in the rest of the way.

In the tunnel was a whole new ball game.  The Ben Duoc tunnels, as opposed to the Ben Dinh tunnels (which were built specifically for tourists, and as such, had bigger underground passage ways) were supposed to be the original size.  (We later found out that the ones we went through were hogged out for us "larger" folks.)

Even then, I barely fit.

As you can tell, I'm not exactly a happy camper, and with the air being so still and humid, I immediately sweated through every article of clothing I was wearing.  Evident by the shirt, which used to be an off white color, is now translucent.  The dirt on my jeans are from crawling around on my hands and knees.

 Inside the tunnels, they had everything - infirmaries, sleeping areas, even meeting rooms to discuss war strategies, as seen above.

Getting out of the tunnels, however, seemed like an easier task. I think our guide found us a bigger exit hole than entry hole:

Nothing like having a bunch of dirt, leaves, and other random dead stuff fall all over you.

As we wrapped up our tour, it started to get dark, and decided we better hustle back into Saigon before we lost the sunlight.  Yep, that did us no good. 15 km out of Cu Chi, we hit a rain storm.  Learning a lesson from Thailand, we knew better than try to ride IN it. (We did that last time, and in the time it took me to find shelter, which was 500 meters later, I was completely drenched - as if I took a shower in my clothes.  Margaret, however, is much smarter, and uses me as a windscreen, so she only got partially wet.)

We found a what appeared to be a restaurant (later, we figured it out to be a bar), and ducked in to wait out the storm. It started with a few sodas, and the rain only got heavier. Well, time to look at the menu.  All Vietnamese.  With some motioning of ducks, chickens, cows, and pigs, it was no use.  Margaret went out to the kitchen, and started ordering.  We got a random smattering of food, which was squid cooked over a hot pot burner, and fried chicken - both delicious. As we ate, the locals were gesturing to us as to how we should eat the food. They even offered us beer, and the local moonshine (which packed a punch, might I add).  Had we not needed to drive another 30 km back to our hotel, this would have been a fun crown to hang out with.  As we left, I figure we should all take a group photo of our new friends.