Travel Blog Chapter 4: Roadtrip to Cuchi

Very early in the morning, Nam and I prepared for a road trip to Cuchi which was just outside of Ho Chi Minh City. We were going to the countryside! I was a bit tired of the city life. To me the city was monotonous with routine processes that occur everyday. Being in the city too long makes a person boring.

After having a very oily breakfast near our house, we loaded up our stuff and prepared for our 3 hour motor bike ride out of Saigon. In the time that I have been in Saigon I have not had diahorrhea, nor any stomach upset or cough which was great. I read that you shouldn't drink any ice water in Vietnam due to the lack of processing in their tap water as ice water was essentially just frozen water from the tap. I made a pact to myself to refrain from doing that before I came but you just can't drink hot water in Vietnam due to the weather. And the best thing was that I did not get any dihorrhea or fall ill during the time I was there after drinking all the ice water and eating all the streetside vendors.

Anyway, let's get back to the story. We loaded up our stuff and in my halting Vietnamese I went around the meat shop saying goodbye to Nam's family members. And off we went. My first road trip in Vietnam.

Topping up fuel before continuing the journey. They still have 92.

On the way to Cuchi

Reached Cuchi 3 hours later. Did I mention it was his dad's house we were staying in? After a long weary ride out of the city I was hungry and very thirsty. The family was very hospitable and it was the beginning of endless stuffing of food in the stomach. In the day time we went to Cuchi Tunnels with Nam's brother who just got married. This was where the Vietnamese fought the American Forces. They dug miles nd miles of underground tunnels to get away from as well as to use them as a means to trap the Americans. I had mixed feelings when I was told about the war. You see...according to South Vietnamese, they enjoyed the American Occupation because with the Americans' presence, there was prosperity. But the communist North Vietnamese was anti-american. As such they recruited the South-Vietnamese in their efforts against the Americans. What you get was Cuchi, the desecendants from the soldiers who fought the Vietnam War.

Mansion that I stayed in. Swimming pool to cool off the body

In front of a temple in Cuchi with my Nam's brother

In the forest where the guerrilla war was fought with Nam

The tunnels were very small and that was the point; to stop the oversized Americans from entering. I managed to squeeze myself into the tunnels and I must say that it was seriously claustrophobic. We had a tour guide and he led us through the tunnels. After the tunnels we walked around the vicinity of the forest where guerrilla warfare was fought. I saw the impact of the bombs on the landscape and it was sad to see the ravages of the war that had caused Vietnam to be what she is today.

Squeezing into the tunnel the Vietcongs dug

Deep indent in the landscape caused by a bomb

Spikes in the Cuchi tunnels to trap and kill unsuspecting American Soldiers

The communist nature, the propaganda machine that was Vietnam was still not felt that strongly in Saigon as compared to Hanoi as I would later go. Anyway, after that trip to Cuchi Tunnels I had a good evening with my Nam's family and met all the relatives. He has a 3brothers and everyone was married. I must really admit that the women look ravishing. So my hypothesis from my discussion still stands that the majority of Vietnamese women are really really good looking. According to a Singaporean I met later on in Laos who commented that the Vietnamese who crossed the ocean to Singapore kind of lost their good looks. The Vietnamese in NUS according to him could not compare to what we saw in Vietnam. I chuckled at that and through this journey that hypothesis was proven again and again.