Cu Chi Continued - and Rubber!

Am now in Bangkok, but will finish off Cu Chi!

I continued to be fascinated by the ingenuity of the Vietnamese and how simple knowledge of the land and lack of "modern" weaponry made outside forces look less than brilliant.  Once they had weapons, they were virtually unstoppable - a sad comment on a war that could possibly have ended much earlier with much less loss of life.

We continued onward and came upon some actual tunnels that had been enlarged to allow tourists to go through, but not too large - and they were still claustrophobic and small.  Brenda managed to go down and along a little way and others in our group actually went 100m on their hands and knees.  This was truly an experience to try and understand just how people managed in these tunnels for so very many years.

They lived, ate, journalists wrote - simply everything happened down there, even babies were born.  There were "long haired soldiers" (women) participating unofficially.

 I went down one "exit" hole to see what is was like, but decided I wasn't going to go along the tunnels myself.  I "got" the "picture" from where I was!

The majority of the site was actually above ground and the quality of the guide the key to understanding the whole thing - especially to disspell myths and inconsistencies in tales and to update those of us who weren't really following the war as closely as those involved.  

The tunnels are still there although much destroyed now.  The lowest levels have eroded and caved in and only a few meters are really accessible and preserved for the public.

We returned to Ho Chi Minh along a road that passed by many rubber tree groves.  The area is rich for their growth and farmers tap them daily for export to the Chinese markets.  The terrain is well suited for rubber and trees last about 30 years.  They mature at 7 years and as mentioned, are tapped daily at approximately 1 inch intervals.  

The whole process reminded me of the Maple Sugar Bushes in Canada and I did ask if they could semi-automate the process with plastic tubing running between the trees as our farmers do.  This didn't seem possible and we learned that the sap (rubber) cannot be exposed to sunlight or it loses some of its key chemical components.  These farmers work at dawn.  The trees were beautiful and the rows very long and straight.  They reminded me of the cutlines we used to ski along in the Buffalo Head Hills in northern Alberta!  New trees are planted, watered, thinned and the Chinese are hoping to be able to speed up maturity by 4 or so years.  It will be interesting to see what the outcomes are.

We headed back to Ho Chi Minh, had a true local Pho (noodle soup) lunch and a relax.  Then we headed out for a speedboat ride up the Saigon river to an island with a very unique Chinese temple on it.  

More on that another day!

Looking forward to your comments now that I've fixed my settings!

Cheers!