Cu Chi Tunnels

Given that I've basically written every blog so far, we had decided Hannah would write this post, but for safety reasons we thought it best I take the reins. You see, Hannah didn't exactly like our tour guide for the Cu Chi tunnels. And when I say 'didn't like' I mean hate! His endless life stories and constant repetition of the word 'stand', meaning 'understand?' did not set the journey off to a good start. He had a bazillion sob stories that we knew word for word by the end of the trip and his irritating voice meant Han couldn't even sleep through them, something unheard of for this girl!

Arriving at the tunnels we were all rounded up into a room with two fans and with the heat being what it was we weren't impressed. 'Glowing', I think would be an appropriate adjective here! After watching a thrilling (not so much) video on the Vietnam war we had yet another pep talk from our tour guide. [Oh, I should probably mention we were told to call him 'Bean' after Mr Bean.. Whyy?? Probably because he's annoying!] So we had a thrilling pep talk and made our way out into the blistering heat. He demonstrated various traps that were used during the war, which were pretty cool, yes, but not worth the fifty hours he spent at each one giving us an in depth description of his relationship with them! After what felt like a lifetime we stopped for lunch that consisted of charred corn on the cob and rubbery deep fried beef kebabs. At the very end he sat for his 13th cigarette and told us to walk down the small steps into the tunnel. We leaped at the opportunity, anything to escape him. What I remembered whilst walking down said steps, however, was how small Bean has sad the tunnels were (60cm wide and extremely low). Crouching through the tunnels I felt myself getting increasingly hot to the point were I don't think there was an area of my body that wasn't covered in sweat... Yummy huh? Well this tunnel must have been a mile long (maybe a slight exaggeration there but that's certainly what it felt like!) and with no escape route we turned to comedy to get us through... Checking to see if there was wifi? Whether there was a Health and Safety check sign anywhere? Reminding each other how cold we both felt! And asking others around whether we had, in fact, arrived in Cambodia?!

Eventually we found the light! I'm not even going to use a nice adjective like glowing, we were drenched, soaked through. It really wasn't pretty! But I have to say, did make the Cu Chi Tunnels more enjoyable. Perhaps because we were without Bean for that section of the trip? But it was amazing to think soldiers used to live in those tiny tunnels, an space we almost didn't fit into!

Bean aside, the trip was quite interesting, though boiling hot, crouching through the tunnels was an experience I will never forget!


Lots of love


Two very sweaty travelling girls


Xxxxxxx