So THAT's what happened to the rhinos...

This morning we took a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels. We hate tours.....

Our tour of about 25 people took a minibus to the town of Ben Dinh, where there are a series of renovated tunnels originally used by Vietnamese Communist guerrillas during the American War. The tunnels run for an amazing 250 kms underneath the forest floor. Currently the forest is fairly new (a lot of eucalyptus trees planted for quick re-growth) as the Cu Chi area was one of the most heavily bombed areas in the country, and probably the world (despite this, the Americans never managed to destroy them). We saw some trap doors, tiny (and I mean TINY) openings camouflaged in the forest floor used for quick escapes. If U.S. soldiers did happen to find these, they could not chase the guerrillas through the tunnels as the Vietnamese soldiers were much smaller, therefore the tunnels were too narrow for the Americans to fit in. We saw some grotesque examples of the booby traps the guerrillas set up in the forest. Most of them consisted of some sort of contraption meant to trap and/or kill soldiers with barbed spikes when they stepped on them. Oh yeah, there was a U.S. tank here too. We then had the pleasure of 'walking' through the actual tunnels ourselves...they are about 1.2 metres high (about 4 feet) and 80 centimetres across. This experience was definitely NOT for the claustrophobic. We came out filthy with our backs aching, and in need of some fresh air. It really was horrible, and we only walked about 50 metres of it.

Next, all of the tourists were given the option to shoot a variety of guns ranging from pistols, to M-16s, to AK-47s. We were sad to see that the targets set up were pictures of endangered animals, including rhinos and tigers. We were expecting a few blond-haired, blue-eyed American GIs. Obviously we did not take part in this activity. We found it appalling that people could actually WANT to pick up these killing machines after seeing all of the horrors of war in the video and in the War Remnants Museum.

We headed back to Saigon and were dropped off at the War Remnants Museum, where we picked up where we left off the day before. We saw heaps more war photos, lots of weapons, armory, and bombs, 'tiger cage' jail cells and a guillotine (used by the French), photos of the devastating effects of the various chemical bombs used, and a room dedicated to all of the war protests that went on around the world....even a photo from an Adelaide protest march. Despite the fact that the Cu Chi Tunnels and the War Remnants Museum are CLEARLY one-sided, they were still worth seeing and gave a better idea of what the war must have been like (well, at least an image from one side).

We thought we deserved a cheery pick-me-up after a day full of horrible images, so Kel insisted we go to the Continental Hotel, a famous hotel for writers and journalists which also plays a big part in the book 'The Quiet American' (and therefore the movie adaptation). When we found it, it wasn't quite what Kel had envisioned, and we walked back to our hotel, Kel a bit disappointed (especially since we didn't get our cocktail). We had another excellent Vietnamese Italian pasta meal for dinner (actually cheaper than our Vietnamese lunch yesterday) and will head to bed as soon as we can as we have an early start to the Mekong Delta tomorrow.