Tuesday, Oct 18 - Saigon

Today was a long drive through the streets of Saigon...

into the countryside...

to the Cu Chi tunnels area.  The area had 120 miles of tunnels, where some of the generals in the Viet Cong hid out and lived during the Vietnam War.  Messengers would bring information and take orders back to the field.  They had everything underground – hospital, kitchen (with smoke chambers to trap the smoke until nighttime), sleeping quarters, etc.  The tunnels were not very tall, and one had to stoop down to get thru some of them.  And some areas were so narrow, that only small Vietnamese could get through, not the larger Americans.

One of the “attractions” was a display of really gruesome booby-traps used in the area.  Too graphic.  Not sure any of us liked it.

On the way back to town we stopped at a riverside restaurant for lunch and watched the boats and large "islands" of water hyacinth floating down the river.

Back in town we enjoyed our views of Saigon and the Mekong River from our hotel room.

We had dinner at a large restaurant that had mini-specialized kitchens all around the periphery of the dining rooms.

Paul, Mary, and Tara then visited the night market, which had more varied items than the central market.