Roads of Vietnam and the Cu Chi Tunnels

Today's Vocabulary:

Cyclo (-taxi): A bicycle with two wheels and a passenger seat in front, and
one wheel and driver in back. Typically piloted by a skeleton with skin and
inconsistent teeth who, after hire, will pedal you around in circles, claim
he is lost, and demand payment. AKA a rickshaw.

Motorbike (-taxi): A 100cc scooter dominating streets and also
found parked on all of its sidewalks. Drivers will hound you on every corner
in attempts to earn a 10000 Dong ($0.65) fare, even when you tell him you
are walking another 20 feet.

Street Food: Noodles, typically served pho-soup style, literally cooked on
the sidewalks and served at plastic table and chairs best sized for a
toddler tea party. Frequented by locals at all hours of the day. Frightening
disregard for the principles of hygene, especially in utensil cleaning and
meat refrigeration (complete lack of).

Typhoid Cafe: Same as street food except found in open-air store fronts with
motorbikes parked in them.

Viet-frogger: Crossing any street in , dodging motorbikes, cars, and
cyclos while they beep at you and ignore traffic signals despite the
presence of policemen on each corner.


The Cu Chi Tunnels

Today was an experience; I met my driver at for my trip to Cu Chi, where during the war the Viet Cong had an extensive tunnel system that the US Army was unable to take over. I was definitely interested in the trip, but a bit apprehensive about the 40 km trip on the back of a motorbike. Each day you should try to do something that scares you, so I committed.

I have to admit, just riding through the city was pretty fun. I was finally on the other side of the game of Viet-frogger I'd been playing the past two days. Imagine a flock of birds in flight avoiding objects in their path, flying in unison. Riding a motorbike is pretty similar, with lots of beeping horns but no road rage. Traffic signals are a guideline at best, but typically irrelevant on everything but the most major thoroughfares.

My driver takes me to a staging area and transfers me to a subordinate, a woman of about 30. We got under way, riding through the real Saigon, away from the tourist sites and hotels. We followed a polluted creek for awhile, and it was trash day so all the containers were out cooking in the tropical sun and smelling up whole city blocks as we passed numerous typhoid cafes and motorbike repair centers, but friendly people and actually decent neighborhoods in general. We then got on to a sort of interstate highway that was a little bit like US Route 1 but wider and with less stops (kind of like NJ). The only holdup was a jack-knifed cyclo, a 1970s model that was nearly completely covered with rust.

After about 20 minutes, we turned right on to a back road, and the scenery quickly turned rural, with rice paddies, water buffalo, and cyclos carrying fruit and rice. The smells changed too, directly related to the cultural landscape we passed: bad (standing water in a small town), decent but strange (rice paddies), and good (forest / open country).

25 minutes more put us in Cu Chi. My driver let me know where to find her when I was done, and I made my way to the ticket window. I was quickly escorted to a video room where I was shown a 1970s film about the fighters of Cu Chi. It was wonderful Communist propaganda (a lot like the Guinness brewery: "as soon as I could take nourishment..."). "Trinh dong Nguyen was awarded the ____ medal for killing 23 Americans, all while growing rice during the day; a true hero of the revolution!"

I then met my guide and two companions: guy about my age and his retired father both originally from Boston and they make good company. The first stop our guide shows us an entry hole into the tunnels that is (no lie) about 2' x 1'. We stare in disbelief as he places his 4'6" frame into it, pulls the door on top, and disappears from the forest. I look in and claustrophobic doesn't begin to describe it. Craters from B-52 bombs are all over the place, and we can hear AK-47s being fired on the firing range some 100 yards away in the forest ($1.6 /round - anyone can do it).

We tour a number of other sites there, and finally come to a place where you can crawl through a section of the tunnels. I quickly jump at the chance, but my tour mates decline. Upon getting in and waddling about 5 yards, it takes all of about 10 seconds for me to just about freak out. It's dark, hot, and completely cramped. There are numerous turns and I get a little lost, but eventually find my way out, sweating like a champ, rattled, and respectful of what the VC did here.

The tour ended shortly thereafter, and I walked over to the typhoid cafe where I found my driver asleep in a hammock. She woke up, ordered us some noodles, and we ate. I knew it wasn't good for me, but I blew it off. I'd had food poisoning so many times in the past that I figured my hardened stomach could take it. We ate and then waved goodbye to the slackers in the hammocks and were on our way. I was right - a few abdominal grumbles on the ride home would do it, and I survived.

On the way home I took my camera out and snapped photos directly from the moving motorbike of the scenery. My favorite is the one on a country road where I held it backward to get a look at my head and the big truck riding about 6 ft. off of our asses and beeping its horn full bore in attempts to pass.

Ho Chi Minh City - Cu Chi,
August 19, 2006
9:30am-2pm