Cu Chi

Last full day in Vietnam and Mrs. PS birthday, so yes, another tour, but a special one, Cu Chi tunnels, not by road, but by boast of the Saigon River. Into a great little boat with 5 other passengers,, we rocked up the Saigon River, at speed courtesy of the Yamaha 200! Another great river trip, but so different to yesterday. Despite being 60km from the ocean, the river is still very tidal, but more interestingly, choked with Floating Hyacinth, a weed that the French introduced in 1905 from the Amazon. Sadly it took hold quickly and the plant can produce 250 000 offspring in 90 days. It’s crazy. Much of the time we were powering through fields of it, having to stop every so often to clear the propeller.

After 90 minutes were arrived at Cu Chi, stopping first for a beautiful lunch in the floating restaurant, and then onto the tunnels with our guide. Thankfully being low season, the tunnels weren’t crowded at all and our group of 9 had a great chance to look around, with great interpretation by our guide.

Wow, you just have to go there, and read the stories to understand what an epic ordeal it all was. 248km of tunnels, up to 15m deep, with terrible conditions due for the most part by the Americans trying to gas or drown them in the tunnels. But ingenious they were and despite considerable losses they persisted, and caused relentless havoc. You have to admire what they achieved to be honest.

The highlight of course was crawling through one of the tunnels. The original tunnels were 60cm wide and 80cm high, they have increased the height to 100cm for the westerners in this spot. We all went through, the full distance, and not nearly as bad as I expected to be honest. And simply amazing that the tunnels were dug by hand, around 1-1.5m per day per person …

All too soon, time to head back down the river, just a fantastic day …

But it didn’t end there, as today was a birthday dinner. I’d looked at a few options, but the choice in the end was pretty simple, Koto, a social enterprise that gives disadvantaged youth from the streets of Vietnam the possibility to learn and strive in their lives, through learning centers, including their two restaurants. http://www.koto.com.au/about-koto/koto-enterprise/koto-saigon-restaurant

Great place, divine meals, fantastic service. Very memorable. We bought “a brick” as the completion of the birthday present, the money from which goes towards the venues and helping train the kids. Each brick goes into the brick wall with your chosen inscription. Ours we chose to be subscribed with “Together We Learn”, the school motto from Cashmere Primary, which we thought was very fitting …