Guerillas in Vietnam!

To understand the country as it is today, one has to understand the country's history. Therefore we booked a half day tour to the Cu Chi tunnels, where we learned more about the importance of the tunnels for the Vietnam war. It was a very interesting introduction in the history of Vietnam but we as well only scratched the surface. Seeing the tunnels in real and actually crawling through them gave us a very lifely impression of it!

Some history for you guys....(if you are interested):
The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Củ Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters.

Situation map - The Cu Chi tunnels are located in the red area north of Saigon

Tiny entrance to the tunnels...not made for Westerners!

The Guerilla fighters used many kinds of booby-traps...*OOOUCH*

Crawling in the tunnels....it got a little bit claustrophobic!

Escaping to the fresh air!

On the way back we went to a craftsman factory where handicapped children of the victims of the Agent Orange attacks (a herbicide used by the US during the Vietnam war) are trained in doing craftsman work in order to have a useful job to do in life.

One of the many rubber tree plantation

The craftsman work produced (one can buy big peaces of art and get in shipped to everywhere in the world)

The streets of Vietnam - always full of life and business

In the evening we went to walk through the China town of Saigon. The scenery changes quite a bit (lots of chinese signs everywhere) and people start speaking cantonsese! On the way back I tried to entertain a huge group of motobike drivers to smile for the picture...was not totally successful!