After breakfast on the balcony Jeroen, Maatje, Travis and I went to do some sightseeing. We walked into the city where immediately it became clear that the influence of the French colonisation of the south of Vietnam is apparent in the architecture. We saw the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral and the famous post office (designed by Gustav Eiffel!). We spent a while in the post office as everyone was sending postcards etc before going for lunch at this great restaurant with loads of gourmet street food stands all around the perimeter. The food was delicious.

Jeroen and I decided to do a tour of the
Cu Chi tunnels - I felt like I couldn't really come to Vietnam and not see those. It was much further away than we thought but it was so hot in the city that it was actually incredible to spend two hours on an air conditioned bus! Our tour guide really knew his stuff and told us some really interesting information.

The first thing we saw upon arrival at the Cu Chi battle fields was a replica of one type of trap the Vietnamese used against the U.S. The Vietnamese specialised in "psychological weapons" at the time using a multitude of booby traps to injure and kill the American soldiers; they even recycled the U.S. unexploded bomb shells to create such traps in attempt to defend themselves from American modern war weaponry and machinery. They would place hidden spikes in the ground and smother them with either human or animal faeces to infect the imposed wounds with bacteria, leading to illness and death.

The underground tunnelling system was first used by the Vietnamese when trying to gain independence for the French colonies in the south in the French colonial war during the 1950's; these were then expanded massively and used by the northern armies in the Vietnam War. The tunnels took 20 years to complete and were smaller than 60 cm wide and 90 cm tall. The Viet Cong at the time had many diseases and were small and skinny, meaning they could either crawl quickly through the tunnels but more likely walk with backs bent hunched over. 18,000 men lived in these tunnels and 12,000 of them died.

The U.S. knew that the tunnels existed but failed to destroy them. They sent in 3000 German Shepherd Dogs to detect the "air holes" in the ground (which were disguised as termite mounds) and once identified would pump noxious chemical gases in to kill the people in the tunnels below. However, the Vietnamese were smart and places chilli and pepper around the entrances to deter the dogs and also blood stained American soldier uniform so the dogs were fooled to think allies lay beneath and left them alone.

Some people jumped on the opportunity to shoot war guns at the shooting fields and then we made our way into the tunnels! They were so small (easier for me because I'm so little) and lots of the guys chickened out or left at the first exit. There was an opportunity to exit every 30 metres but Jeroen and I made it all the way to 150 metres to really experience what it may have felt like moving from one base to another during the war. It was so interesting and we even went down another set that were SMALLER with everybody having to crawl on elbows and knees (except me hehe). I felt like I learnt so much. North Vietnam was only able to win the war once American forces withdrew involvement despite the Vietnamese's clever tactics.

We got the bus back to the city, showered after an extremely sweaty day and went for some street food and drinks. We ended up sat in a little bar all night, Maartje, Jeroen, Elin and I chatting away and it was a really lovely evening, complete with a strawberry daiquiri on the hostel rooftop before bed.