Cu chi tunnels

We woke up 15 minutes earlier than usual to drive an hour and a half to the cu chi tunnels. I didn't know what to expect so I just relaxed and took everything with a clean slate. The car ride was pretty boring because we were all very tired and it was starting to get hot. We saw a lot more of the farming areas because we left HCMC. There were so many buffalo and they were all skinny (America's mess up our animals). I saw the cutest little baby chick following her mama and finding food. When we arrived to the cu chi tunnels, my emotions were fluctuating and it was really hard to stay calm. We were in the actual jungle where the war took place and....wow. The heat was unbearable, the hottest I've ever been here besides on the sweat box bus. I just kept thinking about how warfare could take place there, you can't see anything and are exposed from all directions. There are snakes and other animals that are creepy. And the tunnels. The most ingenious way of guerrilla warfare. The time, effort, and engineering to build these 250 kilometer tunnel routes is really hard to fathom. Them tunnels were constructed with a few different levels and rooms for all different necessities to live. Also as you probably know, the entry ways were camouflaged in the jungle ground making it almost impossible for the Americans to find where they were. They used different spices to disguise the areas because of the k9s that the Americans had. The entry ways were so tiny. It is really awesome to see it in person and after climbing through them, the amount of patience and heart that these soldiers had was crazy. They would be down there for weeks. They also set up there operations in them so an invasion was so hard for the Americans and especially to get intelligence. I learned that they made the tunnels in U shapes like a sink pipes are so gas and stuff could not get in the tunnels which made it almost impossible for the Americans to invade. I actually only went through one tunnel out of like 5 because I saw a bat in one and I went crazy, I screamed like a little girl and started sweating so much!! A couple people got dehydrated  today but nothing serious. We ate on a river which was scenic and beautiful. Today we got to see scenery like postcards and such, something I looked forward to since Vietnam is beautiful. I fell asleep on the ride back home and felt miserable when I woke up, it was a mixture between overheating, dehydration, and drowsiness. It was temporary because once I showered and layed down, I felt much better. This trip is just so amazing but very involved and today it all hit us and we crashed a little. Tomorrow we are doing a little hiking and beaching, hopefully I can get a little bronze to start off the summer. Please take that as a joke, please. I am making sure I am drinking a ton of water. 

A fun fact of the day is there are squirrels in the zoo here.

 Until next time, stay classy Vietnam