Day Trips! The Cu Chi Tunels and the Mekong Delta

August 14, 2009

We took two day trips from Saigon. One was to the Cu Chi Tunnels, and the other was a tour of part of the Mekong Delta. The Cu Chi Tunnels were used by the Viet Minh against the French, and by the Viet Cong against us Americans. There was a whole complex, where we were shown how the people that lived in the tunnels built them, how them lived, cooked, ate slept and fought. Of course there was some anti-us propaganda, from both our guides and from the video we had to watch. Our guide didn’t have a favorable view of the US, but we think that was because in the war, he was a south Vietnamese soldier, and afterward spent many years in the re-education camps. He said that Vietnam was better, because Vietnamese people can visit North Korea, but US citizens cant go to North Korea. It wasn’t a very convincing argument…He also liked Bill Clinton, and thought the George Bush had bankrupted America.

The tunnels themselves were very interesting to walk through. They were sooo small! We went about ¼ mile through them, and were unhappy when we saw the end. Apparently during the war, people would live down there. I couldn’t do it!

Our next day trip was to the Mekong Delta, to a few islands in Ben Tre province, near the city of My Tho. We were taken through a few towns, to a beekeepers, a coconut candy factory, and through all sorts of transportation, including a bus, a motor boat, a horse carriage, and a canoe. We went to Unicorn island, where we visited the bee keepers and a fruit orchard, where we tried all sorts of honey products and some local fresh fruit. Eric got to hold a big python snake (check out the pictures and video!!) Then we went to Coconut island, where we visited a coconut candy factory and had some lunch while some locals played traditional music.

One funny story: On our way back from the Mekong day trip, we feigned ignorance a bit and asked the tour guide about their government. He told us that communism was great. So we asked him if the poor had any subsidies, welfare, or social security. He said, “no, they have to make their own money.” We then asked him how Vietnam was communist, and what the benefit was. He replied, “Communism is great. It gives us freedom of religion, and the right to own land.” This all seemed a bit confusing to us…