Cu Chi Land

What up? So I am back in an internet cafe to deliver another spew of info. We went to the Cu Chi tunnels today, about 60 km from Saigon. Cu Chi was a small and tranquil village area that rich Saigonese would vacation to during the summer coz it was filled with flower fields and fruit orchards. When Vietnam began struggling against France when it was a colony, the clay soil of Cu Chi was a perfect place to construct tunnels for shelter and guerilla warfare. During the "American War," the tunnels were expanded to over 150 kms!! huge! We were taken on a tour of the area and saw how the Vietcong lived during the war. They had barely any food and survived on a root vegetable comparable to a sweet potato. We tried it and it was so bland...had to be way worse than the potato famine..

We also got to crawl through some surviving tunnels which was really cool. The temperature in the tunnels is cool and nice, but they are incredibly narrow. Only one person can move at a time and at times the tunnels get so narrow you have to crawl on your stomach.. fortunately it didnt get that small in the section we were in. I freaked out a little at one point and scraped the shit out of my shoulder.. not a big fan of dark tight spaces. Overall the experience was really cool since we had a guide named Hai who fought with the Americans and South Vietnamese against the Vietcong during the war. He was full on information and had many incredible first hand accounts of the war.

Last night, Sarah, Molly, Atin (our new british friend who is in Saigon with us), and I went to a small street food place for dinner. We ate fried whole anchovies (they tasted like french fies with fins) and muc, which is a delicacy in Saigon. Muc is cuttlefish (yes like the kind you pin to the inside of bird cages for calcium) and it smells like rancid ass!!! it is so chewy that you cant bite it and have to eat it whole and viguorously chew before you puke. I ended up spitting it out and eating a small tentacle instead which was more bearable. Not as good as maggots. So far the most disgusting thing I ate was calf skin (like a boot leather). I thought it was an onion so imagine my surprise when I tried to chew and my jaws bounced off the rubbery flesh! I literally puked in my mouth and had no napkin to spit it in. I was forced to swallow the puke and spit the calf skin into my bowl.... it was rush hour in the biggest bia hoi (a large outdoor pub restaurant full of vietnamese business men) so it was quite embarrassing. stupid american!

Anyway, tonight is our last night in Vietnam so I am on the prowl for some snake.. Must eat it! Might do the cobra blood shot to if i can muster the balls. I am sad to leave "Freedom Country" as we have grown to call it. Its really a beautiful, peaceful, and exciting mix of sights and sounds. Cambodia is going to be completely different.

J