Cu Chi Tunnels

Hello everyone,

I'm nearing the end of my time here in Vietnam. I only have a few more weeks left. Although, I'm looking forward to coming home, I know I'm really gonna miss it here and I definitely will jump at the first opportunity I can get to come back. 

Today I took a half day trip out to the Cu Chi tunnels. These were the tunnels used by the Vietcong during the American war located Northwest of Saigon. It was quite an interesting site and I was glad I got the chance to go before we left. We got to look at some traps that were used against American soldiers as well as an old Vietnamese propaganda film describing the heroics of the Cu Chi soldiers against the Americans. We even got to go down into the tunnels. Even though the original tunnels had been widened to accommodate tourists, it was still incredibly tight as we had to crouch down to our knees to fit in there. It is amazing to think that many Vietnamese spent years underground in these tunnels. We spent about 5 minutes total underground crawling through the tunnels and the humidity down there. The whole tour was very educational and I certainly came out with a new found appreciation for this period of history in Vietnam. 

Here are some photos from the trip:

Tunnel entrance

We each took turns fitting into these small holes and covered ourselves with camouflaged lids

Camouflaged trap door

Poison tipped spikes at the bottom of the trap.

This is a bomb crater created by an American B-52

American tank that was destroyed by the Vietnamese

Can Tho Weekend

Hey everybody,

Sorry for not posting in a while. I have been busy and just haven't really found anything worth writing about lately. It's been a nice couple of weeks here and I'm just starting to realize how much time has gone by. It's hard to believe it has already been nearly two months now. It does not feel that long at all. Although I have been having an incredible experience here, I will certainly be welcoming the opportunity to go home when it comes up next month. 

I'm gonna post some pics from my weekend to Can Tho nearly two weeks ago. We stayed there for couple nights just to check out the city and take in the floating market scene. It is a relatively small city of 1.2 million people, although, it appeared much smaller than that when we drove around the city. Halifax feels like a much larger city in comparison to Can Tho and it has a population of less than 300 000. It really gives you an idea of how much more densely populated this small country of nearly 90 million is.

Anyways, here are some pics from our trip:

Floating markets tour we did.

We visited a small rice noodle factory as well.

Floating markets continued

Ross and I taking it all in.

The Ho Chi Minh statue in Can Tho

A pagoda we visited.

Inside the pagoda.

Ross and I with our guide and friend Le

Thanks for reading everyone!

Cheers,

NB