Saturday 1st March 2008

Before going to bed last night we booked ourselves on a tour for today, which took us to the Cu Chi Tunnels, just North of Ho Chi Minh, in a place called Ben Dinh. We arranged to meet the parents down in reception at about 7am. As their room was on the floor above, they said they'd knock on our door as they passed - and at 7.03am we were starting to worry (not really, but if it had been the other way round, Mum would have been frantic). It turned out, the reason they were late was because they'd set their alarm wrong and had overslept. Stupid olds, I don't know how they'd get by without us!

After breakfast, we walked round to meet the coach and were soon on our way. The journey took about an hour or so and I think Mum and Keith had now accepted the standard of driving over here... not! Thankfully though, we arrived safely. On the way, scattered randomly around the city, we spotted things left from the Vietnam War (or American War as it's called here) - including a tank and some missiles!

The Cu Chi Tunnels are what the Viet Cong built when they were hiding from the Americans during the Vietnam War. After watching a short video we were taken out into the forest and shown around. We didn't really know where we were going when all of sudden we came to a stop. The next thing we knew was a man dressed in an army uniform uncovered a tiny hole in the ground, called a Spider Hole (it was about 6 x 15 inches) and climbed in, before covering himself up again... of course - I had to have a go and, i'm happy to say, I fitted in quite snugly! The rest of the tour involved coming across an old tank, which has become stranded because it's sat on a land-mine(!) and then crawling through the network of tunnels, some of which are about 8 meters underground. They're only tiny and Mum climbed down and then straight back out again. The Vietnamese used to spend up to 5 hours in the tunnels - traveling as far as 10km. Keith made it 40 meters and me and Nikki 60 - and THAT was hard going. After catching our breath, we were taken to a shooting range, where me and Keith got to fire live bullets from a real AK47 - the standards of safety were incredibly relaxed, but it was AMAZING fun! Rather than travel back to Ho Chi Minh by bus, the four of us jumped in a boat which took us on a lovely cruise down the river.

When we got back to the city, we stopped for some lunch. Me, Nikki and Keith all ate some of the local cuisine, but sadly Mum wasn't quite as adventurous - instead tucking into a nice Vietnamese pizza and chips. After finishing our meals, we sat and watched the hustle & bustle on the streets of Ho Chi Minh and the took the 'Olds' to the Ben Thanh Markets. We didn't get back until quite late and when we did Mum and Keith went off to bed but me and Niks went out for food, coming back later.

Good ol' Mum - comes to Vietnam and eats Italian food... you gotta love her!