We hauled our luggage down the lane from the Cam Hotel to load it into the same minivan that we had in the Mekong and headed for the Củ Chi Tunnels. We also had the same guide, Thang.
We stopped off at a lacquerware workshop on the way, where disabled people (mainly men) were making lacquerware. It was great to see the whole process, and we were particularly impressed with the eggshell-decorated items. It was interesting to discover that the different colours of eggshell resulted from different baking times.
The Củ Chi Tunnels were one more sobering aspect of the Vietnamese/American War. The tunnels showed how the Vietcong avoided detection during the war with everything happening underground. You were able to crawl through a section of the tunnels (made larger for Western frames). It was rather claustrophobic and hard to imagine living like that for any length of time. There were also demonstrations of the various booby traps used - terrifying. Fighting the Viertcong must have been a horrific experience for the Allied troops. I've probably said it before, but being in Vietnam, you can see why it was a war that could not be won by the Americans/Australians. Still amazing that the Vietnamese are so welcoming.
In an exercise of maximising the tourist dollars, one could also fire some rounds from some of the"war" weapons. Richard and Alex thought that they should donate a few more 'dong' to the Vietnamese economy and participated.
On the way back, we stopped off to have a look at a rubber plantation. There are quite a few around here, as there were on the road from Dalat to Saigon.
Our final Vietnamese treat was a "no nonsense" massage performed by well-trained blind masseurs from the Ho Chi Minh City Association for the Blind. So good to see people with disabilities being trained in ways that give them an existence.
