Hi there  – I don’t know if all my blogs are getting to you but you are probably glad if they are not ha ha

Today we flew from hue to saigon/ Ho Chi Minh City

From 1964 to 1975 there was a war in Vietnam between the north Vietnamese (Vietcong)and the Americans. The war began because North Vietnam was governed by Russia who are communists. America was frightened that other countries would be invaded and made communist so they invaded Vietnam to chase the Russians and communist North Vietnamese out. The war ended when the Americans withdrew on 30 April 1975 at 12 midday when a Vietnamese tank crashed through the gates of the palace that the Americans had overtaken as their head quarters in saigon/ Ho Chi Minh City

Our new guide vu and driver Hahn collected us and took us to cu chi to see the tunnels that the Vietcong lived in and fought from during the Vietnam war. It was interesting learning about how clever they were at digging a vast tunnel system   Apparently the Americans had sophisticated weapons and vehicles which the Vietcong could not compete with so ho chi Minh said ‘use what you know, you are farmers and simple living people who know the jungle and village areas so use your local knowledge.  They are quite short people only 5 ft tall and slight of build so constructed a tunnel system of 3 levels travelling for miles. The tunnels were only 1 1/2 metres tall and 1/2 metre wide which although difficult was possible for the Vietcong to travel through. They experienced various problems using the tunnels such as how to get air down, how to get rid of smoke used for cooking etc and how to get water and stop the tides from flooding the tunnels. They also had to make the entrances difficult to see and find and to deter American army dogs from sniffing them out ( as you can imagine because there was little or no ventilation human smells could come out of the ventilTion pipes and so could be smelt by the dogs searching for tunnels and people. When the dogs barked because they could smell humans the Americans would bomb the tunnel and kill everyone. To avoid this the Vietcong used old discard American uniforms and wet them and stuck them 1/2 mtr into the tunnel so if would travel through the uniforms and then t he dogs could only smell Americans and so did not bark to alert the soldiers of people in the tunnels

So that they could breath in t he tunnels the Vietcong constructed lots of air pipes that went from the tunnels up through the ground to the surface where they were camouflaged so not visible   When they cooked in the tunnel it was possible to see the smoke from the surface so they made lots of pipes that travelled a long way from the tunnel and place lots of material fabrics along the pipe to filter out smells and colour from the food. They only cooked at around 5am so that the now white smoke would look like early morning mist and therefore fool the Americans who wouldn’t see the smoke. The tunnels were constructed near the river so that the Vietcong could draw water from the tunnel or swim across the river to another district. So that the water odd not flood the tunnels when the tide was high dams were constructed to shut off the tunnels. These ‘lids’  ere also used when the Americans tried to look down the tunnel or to get down it. Then the Americans thought that the tunnel was not completed so left it alone.    Because the tunnels were so small children and women were often used to plant bombs and throw hand grenades , they could pop up out do the tunnel and pop back down easily and quickly. The Vietcong lived in the tunnels for 10 years.

The Vietcong used many traps to catch the enemy too using trap doors in the ground with large spikes and spike frames behind doors so that when the door was opened the spikes would crash into the soldiers.

Dave went down an enlarged tunnel purposely built so that tourists could experience what it was like. Dave had to crawl because he was too big. He said that it was dRk and small and scary and he was only down there for 20 mtrs and for 5 minutes. !!!

We saw a lady making rice pancakes and a man making flip flops out of car tyres. The Vietcong used these car tyre flip flops because they only left a track mark in the ground like a bird or an animal so footprints could not be seen.

We took lots of photos of tunnels , traps , guns and bullets, rockets and machine guns, hand grenades etc for you all to see. Dave could have used some of the guns with live rounds but he didn’t .

We then went to the war museum which showed us lots of guns tanks helicopters etc and photos which showed us how awful a war can be and how badly people get hurt and how many get killed.

We went to the palace to see where the Vietcong smashed the gates down and ran up to the roof to put in their flag to say they had won the war   We saw the last American helicopter to leave Vietnam. After this vie5nam was not devised in the south and the north, it became one country.

Vietnam used to be a communist country .  Communism believes that all people are equal and should have equal rights money and opportunity   In Vietnam there is a party committee ruling the country with representatives from all over the country. However, because t eh party members have large cars and big houses and earn lots of money and the farmers and local people are poor it is thought that it is a democratic socialist republic .

After this we went to the catholic cathedral , the old post office etc.  We then went shopping and then to the pool which was lovely. We sunbathed for the first time this holiday!!!!! Wonderful!!!

In the evening we had dinner and went to the bar where everyone was dancing and singing to a Vietnamese band singing English songs. It was fun. We met some Australians and people who now live in Rosales near us in Spain! Small world!!

Today we re on our way to pho quick. A deserted island in the Vietnamese sea to stay on a beautiful mango go resort in a small fishermans cottage with no roof!!! I will let you know what it’s like but maybe not from there because I may not have reception.