The Saroians go Underground

The tour was to start in the same hotel in which the previous tour had ended.  Though the last 10 days had been so relaxing, upon seeing the same doorman and then meeting Chi in the lobby they just disappeared into memory.   We were, proverbially, right back in the saddle.

Vietnamese Recycling Service (Man picking up plastic on the side of the road)

Chi was immediately as our last guide Nee had described.  Trying to give you an impression is difficult.  Imagine a tanned Vietnamese man that is one big, cheeky grin with an even cheekier laugh and a laid back style that is totally at odds with how stressful his job must be.  We warmed to him there and then and felt confident that the next 2 weeks would be fun.


When we got together with the new group at 6pm that evening we were not seeing them at their best; 10 of them had had their luggage delayed in transit from Kuala Lumpur.  However we also saw how we'd be getting along just fine with them.  Some were our age, quite a few from London and almost all of them had a lot of experience on bikes and Exodus tours.  Perhaps most strangely of all, there was another Canadian from the Okanagan valley.  On our previous tour, Larry had been from Penticton and this time we had a lovely lady, Ruth, from just up the road.  Freaky coincidence.

During the meeting we had some great news....the luggage had arrived.  Sad face became relieved face and all was well with the world again.

The trees around Cu Chi are very young (imported from Australia) 

That evening we went to dinner, with some of the group heading off to another restaurant.  This was another very different dynamic to the previous trip, where we had tended to stick together in big group meals.  Now, perhaps as a result of having been on so many previous tours, our group was content to enjoy themselves as they wished.  One thing in common with our last group though was the big diversity in backgrounds and so we would clearly have a lot to talk about in the next fortnight.

Some of the American bombs

Our first day cycling was to be a 30km (easy!) warm-up ride out to the Cu Chi Tunnels.  I say easy, but in fact it was a trifle hot and sticky.  Nothing like the Cambodia/Vietnam leg we did, but still hot enough to be uncomfortable for some of the group not yet acclimatised to the heat and humidity.  Conversations flowed as we cycled along and the crew slowly formed an esprit de corps.

Vietnamese defence trap

The Cu Chi Tunnels were many things to the Vietnamese during the war.  A large area of strong clay afforded them the option of a massive network of tunnels that could house, heal, shelter and supply their war effort.  Given the overwhelming air supremacy that the Americans enjoyed, coupled with the huge arsenal at their disposal, the Vietnamese took guerilla warfare to new heights....or lows.  There were hundreds of kilometres of tunnels spread over a broad area to the north of Saigon at the end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which went from North Vietnam, round through Laos/Cambodia and back into Vietnam.

Chi is explaining all about Cu Chi 

Walking through the different types of tunnels, seeing the ridiculously small entrances, feeling how alien the jungle environment was, it was easy to see how the average GI would have been overwhelmed.  If you weren't from the region it must have been an horrific tour of duty and something that would have caused gross self-doubt and fear in the young men forced out there.

In the face of some fierce atrocities being perpetrated, the Vietnamese did what any indignant and resilient people would do - fought hard and pulled no punches.  The traps we saw on display were shown with a kind of stubborn pride; as we imagined the damage they would inflict on the human body it seemed very unnatural for people to openly display how vicious they could be and how happy they were to kill and maim.  However these were a people used to the slaughter of villages, of white phosphorus and agent orange raining down on unprotected civilians and napalm literally blowing away thousands of years of a region's history with one sweep of a B52's wings.  Where do you draw the line between grisly and necessary?  When is something evil justified?  With monks committing the equivalent of a Buddhist mortal sin by self-immolating in the streets, the situation was very openly out of hand and any moral high ground would have to be abandoned if either side was to win.

The Americans tried gassing the tunnels - so they built more ventilation and better exits.  The Americans trained "tunnel rats", smaller soldiers able to navigate the Cu Chi underground lair - so they built pinch points and smaller tunnels.  In a war of one-upmanship, the Vietnamese collected unexploded munitions and turned them back onto the Americans; they trained young girls and honoured them with medals for "killing many GI soldiers", immortalising them in propaganda films like the one we were shown before we entered the tunnels.  Frankly, by the end of the tour, nobody in our group was under any illusions that this period of human history had been anything other than a massive meat grinder of human flesh and spiritual sanity.

To quote Team America....

"Surprise C*ck-bag!"

Eating lunch on the site, back in the 70s designed entrance area, there was an other worldly feel to it all.    We had just seen such horrors, yet now here we were on melamine chairs, drinking weird Winter Melon drinks and eating noodles.  Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

We didn't cycle back to town, but instead climbed aboard our coach and drove back to Saigon.  Saigon is the old name of the city, with Ho Chi Minh City being awarded after reunification in 1975 - probably to grant some kind of reconciliation with the Northern Vietnamese.  Though we often see this as a French/American war it had been going on for centuries between North and South and the bit we know and are ashamed of was really just the final gruesome chapter.

Back at base, we showered and took the cue from the previous night that our group wouldn't be offended if we spent out last night in Saigon away from them.  Julia and I went out for a lovely romantic meal at the Refinery (which we mentioned in the last post).  We also found a wonderfully large and well-stocked deli style shop round the corner from our hotel and bought some little treats to smooth out the bumps in the next 2 weeks.