Day 2 of the tour, the Cu Chi Tunnels:

This was the tunnel system outside Saigon where the resistance hid from the American Imperialists as everyone referred to us. We took an hour bus ride out to the tunnels and first sat through a documentary about the war. It was really hard to make out what the voice over was saying, but I think the documentary was about the number one American killers of the war. One guy was responsible for killing over three hundred Americans all on his own, through various booby traps he invented. Another guy’s specialty was taking out tanks. There was a spotlight on one woman that was “lady number one American killer.” I wish I understood more of it, as it was pretty interesting.

Then we went out and walked around the tunnels. There were tunnels preserved that you could actually go down in and walk through. Well, not really walk, but hunch down and crawl through. They were not however “Kevin” sized. So I went down to the entrance and looked and then popped back up with the rest of the ladies. That’s ok, I don’t dig on tunnels all that much. We learned a lot about the war and how the communists in the south resisted the American presence, and why they did what they did. It is a fact and point of pride in Vietnam that they defeated the USA, and in terms of the war we are referred to as American losers. The best part of the day, though, was a giant mural showing how different booby traps worked. It looked like a picture from a children’s book with smiling GI’s being impaled in several different ways on sharpened stakes. There are more ways to be impaled on a stake than you ever thought possible, but according to the smiles on the GI’s faces, getting impaled on a stake isn’t all that bad. The more you know…

After the tunnels we went back to Saigon and had a free rest of the day. After a hot day full of depressing images of the atrocities of war and being called an imperialist pig what do you do?

Ange and I got massages.

Most heard phrase during tour uttered by a Canadian: Eh?

Most heard phrase during the tour whispered by Ange to me: Ha ha ha, he just said “eh” again.

Chant I was least likely to try to start: U-S-A...U-S-A...U-S-A