Although I managed to leave on time I slept soundly and woke remembering that I had had a weird dream about me winning on a small fortune on horse racing, enough to cover all my debts with interest and such was the vividity and my desire that the dream be real that I refused to get out of bed for about an hour after my alarm went off.
When I finally managed to get out of bed I was in a real rush to catch a taxi and make it to the coach meeting point in time for the morning trip to start. The Cu Chi tunnels are about 60km away but with the poor roads and heavy traffic it would still take us almost 2 hours to reach them. Mid way we stopped off for a 'bathroom break' that was in reality an excuse for them to drop us off as a artisan market and encourage us to buy some souveniers, and despite seing some wonderful pieces of handmade artwork I resisted enough to only buy a small keyring and nothing else.
The local workers were all busy using silver leaf, crushed egg shell and crushed clam shell to decorate all manner of objects and trinkets and the finished articles looked very polished and professionally done and I am sure that if money was less tight and my rucksack larger and with less stuff packed already I might have been more tempted to try and bag myself a bargain but as it was a keyring would suffice.
A little later on I was quietly mortified when the guide said that we were about to reach it and that he was going to now collect everyones 80,000 dongs for the entrance fee as I was really expecting it to be included in the tour price, but no.
For the next hour we walked through the jungle, sticking to clear paths and learning a few of the tricks and habits that kept the VC alive and able to outfox the French and American forces, being the two biggest threats to their countries freedom and independence over the last hundred years.
It was fascinating to watch a slim Vietnamese dissapear in seconds down a hole barely bigger than a flat A4 folder, and that includes the time it took to hide the entrance. Many of the tunnels entrances now used by the guides and tourists have been enlarged and made clear and visible, but once underground the original tunnels remain pretty much as they were at the time the American GI's were running around trying to find them.
With dug pits in the ground and bamboo spikes still in situ we saw plenty of different boobytraps an learned that each VC soldier only really knew about 20 or 30 square yards around his entrance and thus, although altogether there must have been thousands if not millions of traps set, each soldier only needed to know the hidden location of the closest dozen or so of him or her to ensure his own safety and that of his comrades.
They also had a movie, that was old and heavy on propaganda, but it was nice to see their side of the story and afterwards I felt even more sure that the Americans should never have got involved ( but then I have always hated the Americans overly aggressive military foreign policy following the end of the second world war ).
After the tunnels we headed on back to the city centre where we went on a mini tour, consisting of barely three of its major attraction and here again we had to pay extra to cover the admission fees ( two more 15,000 dong fees ) and I felt even more like it was a lousy tour as here the guide barely told us any more than "this is a meeting room" or "this is the presidents armed jeep", observations that anyone with half a brain could deduce and not much else.
We stopped at the War Museum, the Reunification Hall and the Post Office, all of which offered great photo opportunities and also more evidence to suggest that the horros of the Vietnam war was not all one way. Dropped from above, the lethal and toxic chemical nicnamed 'Agent Orange' scorched and poisoned the earth and everyone it touched with today over a million nationals born or living with either Cancer or some form of chemical induced grotesque deformity or birth defect.
If I did not see the live video footage I would have sworn that many of the images were faked, as they showed bodies twisted, shrunken limbs, bulbous headed and facial features mangled beyond all recognition, images so shocking that I fear they will haunt my sobconscious for many a year.
Once we reached the Post Office and Notre Damb Cathedral I decided that as I was close to the Water Puppet theatre stage that I would not waste my time taking the coach back to the centre of town but instead left it here and made my way by foot the three blocks til I reache the entrance.
I was not sure what to expect when I booked the ticket for the 6:30pm showing of the water puppets, but for 65,000 I got seats quite near the front and didnt have too long to wait before the show began. The stage was a huge giant indoor pool with two trios of musicians on either side, raised away from the pool and a backdrop of curtains that shielded the puppet masters from the audience while they worked their magic.
Being water puppets, their internal mechanisms were pretty basic, but there was nothing held back when the the masters threw their puppets through the water, sending splashes high in the air and on many occasions were so close to drenching the front row of the audience. I would also not say that the puppets were overly ornate or detailed, but then again the battering that they must get plus the real possibilty of water damage over time would suggest that basic and sturdy puppets would last a lot longer than intricate and delicate models.
The show lasted around an hour, set into around 17 mini acts, my favourite being the birth of a new pheonix from the mating of its parents, but equally the boat race or the dance of the twin dragons were equally impressive and amusing.
After the show I asked if they had a dvd of their performance on offer but alas all they had was some miniature replicas of the puppets themselves, which I already knew would be too heavy and bulky for me to take and so I declined their offer. Looking at the map I noticed that I was not that far away from my hotel as it was, so avoiding the thousands of motorcyclist who seem to own ever road and junction, I made my way back to the hotel.
Having finished work J' asked if I wanted to join her for a meal, which I agreed, but I could not stay out for long as I was already quite tired and in need of a good nights rest.
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