Where in the world are Jen and Josh?: Cu Chi Tunnels...

We went to see the Cu Chi Tunnels used by the Viet Cong to fight Americans, French, South Vietnamese for 20 years. The tunnels are 75 miles long with multiple levels where men, women and children lived. They start off by showing you a documentary that is quite biased. It is quite uncomfortable how badly they make the Americans look--our guide some one group of his who were American left right after the video.

There are lots of bomb craters...

This is one of the many holes that people would crawl into the tunnels from. It was amazingly well concealed.

You can't see the door at all. We went all the way in too.

They showed us all sorts of traps they used. Seeing this was all very upsetting. It is also disconcerting that our four guides in Vietnam have each told us a different set of "facts" about the war.

This is an air hole for the tunnel that is well-concealed.

The tunnels were amazingly tight. We only went 60 meters and my legs still hurt from it. They say these tunnels are 40% wider than the original to make it easier for tourists.

They showed how they made weapons...

It was also very off-putting that there was a shooting range on premises where tourists could fire old weapons so there is constant gun bangs in the background. There is also a paintball course and tennis courts--very strange. We didn't partake in these activities.

There was a woman making rice paper the traditional way. This was more our speed.

There was a man making "Ho Chi Minh Slippers" which are sandals made out of tires. They apparently wore them backwards always so people couldn't follow their footsteps.

The kitchens were smokeless in that they ran the smoke through wet tunnels to cool it so it didn't rise when it came out of the ground.

This is the smoke stack from the kitchen where they made our snack...

We ate boiled tapioca root that we dipped in sugar and cinnamon and nuts...

I was a little nervous to try it but it was good.

Our guide took our picture with mannequins showing a married Viet Cong couple--again all a bit strange but very eye-opening.

Then we went to the reunification palace which is the south Vietnam's presidential headquarters up until the north invaded it.

This was the same type of tank that crashed through the fence that ended the war between north and south.

Movie theatre.

Game room.

A helicopter that bombed the palace.

In the basement they had maps and some statistics about numbers of troops. You don't who to believe as there is lots of conflicting information.

Then another propaganda video.

You can really feel the propaganda in the south much more so than in the north however the south seems much wealthier and more modern, at least Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as they prefer to call it).

Then we saw a cathedral...

Tons of motorbikes and there is rarely a stop light so crossing is very scary. They say just walk slowly and don't step back and they will go around you--it seems to work although it is scary.