Day 6. HCMC. 4.11.24

Day 2 of the cycling tour, 20kms. 

'After breakfast, transfer out of the bustling city Ho Chi Minh to Tan Phu Trung village; ride through rubber plantation to Cuchi tunnels site and visit the most famous tunnels in the world, dug by Vietnamese during American war. Overnight in Saigon.'

We spent about 90 minutes in the bus, stopping for a coffee break for those who wanted one.

Then it was on the bikes for 10 kms before we had a water and fruit break opposite a rubber plantation. 

We rode another 10 kms to the Cu Chi tunnels, which are about 70kms north west of HCMC. 

We watched a very one sided film of the American/Vietnam war.

Some of the traps designed to kill the enemy.

Tom explaining how the Viet Cong would hide behind a pile of dirt and shoot at the enemy.  If they got too close then being small people they would crawl through the tunnel behind his grounded foot and pop up in a hole further away (like the one Mark is pictured in above). Then they could shoot again or escape. Very intelligent fighters.

Model of Viet Cong. 

Markings on the tree to show the VC where the tunnel entrances are. They were near the trees so when the enemy came with their tanks they couldn't go over the entrance and trap them inside.

      Rice paper making.

                     Making rice flour and wine.

     Bomb crater

       Heading down a very small tunnel. We only made it to the 25m mark then exited. There is 250 kms of tunnels in total.

    A place to wash the heat, sweat and dirt off before we head to lunch.

     Kitchen where 1 meal a day was cooked early in the morning. The smoke slowly dissipated through cement slabs allowing it to appear to the enemy as if there was fog in the forest.

Ceiling of the hut beside the Saigon River where we had a Vietnamese feast.

We headed home to freshen up and head out to the Street Food Hall

I found the weather to be very hot and humid. I was glad it was a short day.

In the afternoon I developed an ocular migraine and tooks some meds and went to bed. woke up feeling slightly better but the headache was lingering. So I had an early night.