Thursday, December 27, 2007
Day Three
have i mentioned before? can't remember, but anyway, the vietnamese eat lots of vegetables and so they are very skinny and small size. so they dug small holes, just barely enough to fit themselves in. that's me testing out the hole. its quite spacious inside. but that's cuz i don't have any guns, any grenade, huge and heavy army suits etc and i'm short. hahaah! but anyway, there's enough space for them to stand i think. maybe for smaller size ones they can sit? cuz actually there's quite a large space in front of you when you get in. so these are the small holes for the soldies to hide in. not big enough for the big american soldiers! haha so smart of them!!
this tunnel is one of the tunnels where the soldiers crawl in to run away from the enemies. its actually not too small that you have to go on all fours but then its not big enough for you to stand. so its quite tiring and daark. :s haha! but my sister managed to take some pictures! seems very bright? cuz of the flash! hahahaha. anyway, the soil is very strong! the sides as well as the top are all just pure soil, no cement or anything. uber cool!
traps! to make the soldiers injured but not killing them! how scary!
there are many more traps but i'm too lazy to upload them here! hahahas
now, its time for some outside city stuff! went to near the borders of Vietnam! hahahha. we went to visit only 2 places there before having lunch and returning! that's cuz we had to travel for about 2 hours to get there! felt sleepy so i slept throughout the journey there!
first, we went to visit the Cu Chi Tunnel! the most exciting part of the whole trip.. its the actual site where the Vietnam soldies fought the guerilla warfare. so they have all the underground tunnel, all the traps etc for us to really see for ourselves..
have i mentioned before? can't remember, but anyway, the vietnamese eat lots of vegetables and so they are very skinny and small size. so they dug small holes, just barely enough to fit themselves in. that's me testing out the hole. its quite spacious inside. but that's cuz i don't have any guns, any grenade, huge and heavy army suits etc and i'm short. hahaah! but anyway, there's enough space for them to stand i think. maybe for smaller size ones they can sit? cuz actually there's quite a large space in front of you when you get in. so these are the small holes for the soldies to hide in. not big enough for the big american soldiers! haha so smart of them!!
my dad tried out too and he too, could get in! ((: yay! hahaha. there was this other woman who tried but got stuck so hmm. yes. hahaha well done, dad!
this tunnel is one of the tunnels where the soldiers crawl in to run away from the enemies. its actually not too small that you have to go on all fours but then its not big enough for you to stand. so its quite tiring and daark. :s haha! but my sister managed to take some pictures! seems very bright? cuz of the flash! hahahaha. anyway, the soil is very strong! the sides as well as the top are all just pure soil, no cement or anything. uber cool!
the shoes the viet cong wore! made up of rubber tires! like o.O! haha but to them, its very comfortable and comes in different sizes! HAHAHAH! but then it'll be very heavy to wear or carry around isn't it? rubber tires you know.. hahahahaahaha
so this is their kitchen. where they cook for the soldiers. its actually underground and the fire is real fire. there's no chimney for the smoke to escape cuz if there's smoke, then the enemies would know that their kitchen is located there and thus would drop bombs to destroy it. so smart right? so now, where do all the smoke go to then?
here! this is their 'chimney'. look closely and you can actually see a little smoke. its some distance away from their kitchen so just in case the chimney got bombed, the kitchen will not be affected. its camouflaged by the surrounding trees/forest so not easily spotted by the land army too!
traps! to make the soldiers injured but not killing them! how scary!
there are many more traps but i'm too lazy to upload them here! hahahas
okays, so this hole here is actually another tunnel. the viet cong crawled on all fours for about 4-5 km i think or maybe longer to get out of this area to the borders of somewhere. can't really remember. but see how tough life is during war? sighhh.
actually there's also the shooting range. but then we din go and try cuz we have to pay 10USD for each try. its actually 2USD per bullet but you have to buy at least 5 so we skipped it. hahaha!
then we tried the tapioca dipped in peanut fillings. the peanut fillings are nice but i don't like the taste of tapioca. hahahaha! and to think that the people mostly ate that during war times. I FEEL SO FORTUNATE! (((((:
there are alot of various other things which i din have the chance to take pictures of cuz the stupid guide kept rushing us. this place is so exciting but we were rushed. down at the palace, not so interesting, we stayed there for like almost eternity. hahahahaha!
next, our second destination was the temple! not sure what temple it is but apparently, its a mixture of christianity, buddhism etc. hahaha! language barrier you see, so we couldn't ask what we wanted to know.
anyway, actually, we were not supposed to take pictures but the tourguide told us we could. so i quickly took 2 shots. HAHAHA! after that, the nuns came over to tell us we can't take any pictures but oh wells, done that! hahahah. but since i'm not allowed to even take the picture, i should think its wrong to share it here so only the outside of the temple! anyway, the temple is very intricately carved and built! hahaha. very nice! ((:
my parents!
okays so went to eat lunch at their restaurant and the FUNNIEST thing happened. the tourguide, demonstrated to us how to eat their local dish. its this rice paper thingy, with some vegetables, pork, onion and more vegetables. so first he laid the rice paper. then he took the whole stalk of vegetable and put it on the rice paper. after which, he added the other ingredients. finally, he rolled it up and made us eat it. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! guess what. we were not supposed to eat the stalk but only the leaves! no wonder all the waiters and waitresses were staring at us. and we only realised it at night when nhan brought us to eat delicious beef noodles and he taught us how to eat! hahahah!
took these pictures on the way back to our hotel. hahaha! look at the large fields they use to plant padi and their many many vegetables! OHH. yes they love mint. every thing has mint. hahaha!
we ate these stuff during lunch.
wait no, actually more than these.
hahahhaha! longer ones too!
our delicious beef noodles! they have very unique way of eating! first you add some sauce, then some chilli, then squeeze some lime and mix the sauce. first, you finish eating all the meat. then you pour the remaining of the sauce into your soup and you eat the rest of the noodles with the mint and other vegetables. YUUUUUUUMMMY!! hahaahahaha! finally one decent meal after being 'tortured' by the tourguide! hahahahaha! look at our happy and contented faces! KUDOS TO NHAN! ((: YAYY! he's good in bringing us delicious food! and TEACHING us how to eat the CORRECT way. HAHAHAHAHHA!
after beef noodles, we went to ben thanh market to shop again! hahaha and bought more stuff. mostly socks, my dad's clothes, clothes for my cousins etc. hahaha! yupyup. the night ben thanh market is more of clothes than eating stuff. hahaha! ((:
planted at 4:12 PM