Another interesting drive through Vietnams bumpy, dusty, confusing and slow roads this morning. High rise apartments, derelict buildings, tropical shanty towns, rice paddies all in the space of 60km. Amusing watching 2 high school girls buying illicit icecream from a street vendor over stone wall. All this took us to Cu Chi to learn and explore about the tunnels. The atrocities the Vietnamese have had to endure have certainly been vicious and the tactics they employed to try and evict the enemy from their country certainly weren't friendly either. Some of the traps to catch, wound and maim the Americans made out of the weapons the Americans used were particularly nasty. All of this was lost on our younger two only Sophie is gaining an understanding of some of these terrors of war. Of course the highlight for the kids was going through the dark dusty tunnels and while the kids could stand we got to walk doubled over and some parts crawl. These tunnels were even enlarged to allow for us European tourists to fit through.
Having swimming pools at most of our hotels as been a refreshing treat for the kid's not to mention the juice and icecream to keep them cool in the hot weather. So after lunch and a swim we then visited the HCMC museum (quite dated) and The Jade Emperor Pagoda - stuffed with statues, incense and mythology stories we could only guess at, and a pond writhing in turtles.
We then went to a beautifully atmospheric restaurant down a narrow alley for beautiful Vietnamese cuisine as always before catching a taxi back to the hotel.
Motorcycle of the day: the mobile pet store selling puppies.
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