hi guys! (hi minesh! keep on keeping on in china!!)
just wanted to let you know....i visited the cu chi tunnels today, about 60km outside of saigon....and they are mind-blowing. i cannot believe how SMALL these tunnels are. 250km of tunnels beneath the surface, complete with hospitals, command posts, sleeping and eating quarters, and trapdoors connecting all the different levels. they go anywhere from 3metres to 10metres underground, and zigzag like mad ~ hardly any straight passages at all. i suppose thats the best way to guard against the GIs firing bullets straight down the passages. i tried my very best to crawl throught the section that they have open to tourists...and literally could not manage to get further than about 2 feet. as soon as i could see the ground sloping down in front of me, and the light fading behind me, i started to freak out...and then hannah yelled back, 'it gets smaller in here'. i couldnt get out of there fast enough.
also, its HOT in there. i can't even imagine what it must have been like during the war, with bombs and guns overhead, american tunnel rats infiltrating the tunnels (unsuccessfully!!!) and the stench of rot and death filling the stagnant air. everyone who crawled through came out literally dripping with sweat...and the section was only 100ft long. not to mention, its been significantly widened to accomodate our fatter western bodies. the vietcong slithered through those tunnels on their bellies, and were able to turn around and change direction..amazing.
there is also a display of the very barbaric and highly effective guerilla bamboo traps used to maim and kill the GIs during the war...mostly variations on the following theme.....sharpened bamboo spikes, concealed pits, spinning mechanisms. brutal. vietnamese fighters were also awarded the prestigious american killer hero award. maybe something was lost in the translation, but that sounds pretty funny to me. its very refreshing to hear the propaganda from the OTHER side for once, let me tell you.
last night was also a great night. hannah and i met some irish boys....love the accents!!!.....and hit up a couple of bars....'the go bar', and 'lost in saigon', then headed out to 'apocalypse now' which is the big club in town. we took motos there...so there were 4 of us, zigzagging through traffic......madness. my driver decided that if we were going to 'apocalypse now' then we certainly would like drugs...and spent the whole ride asking each one of us in turn (which, as you can imagine, entails darting all over the place to get beside the boys and hannah.....) if we wanted to buy some e or whatever. obviously not. but we had a good laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
the club itself was an odd mix of dirty old men, young hip vietnamese, and travellers.....the music was exactly what you would expect to hear if you were in first year university and intent on getting plastered...they also had a really hip 
version of 'happy birthday' that they played, and everyone would sing along. totally wierd. this place is certainly a trip, and the sense of recent history is great. well, not that the recent history was great..but you know what i mean. tomorrow is the 'war remnants museum' which used to be called 'the american war crimes museum' but the name has been changed in order to be a little more pc.
hope to hear from all of you soon, and hope all of you are well!
oxoxo miss you...
laura
ps. Happy birthday to Uncle Arb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
