Sat17 7.30am about to leave Saigon

Sat17 7.30am about to leave Saigon
Yesterday 16th taken deep into countryside to Cu Chi, a district of South Vietnam that put up fierce resistance to the SV government and US forces during the war. The people of this district built over 200 kilometers of tunnels at 3 levels covering a such large area that bombing and chemical attacks were unable to destroy them. The Viet Cong used the tunnels, some of which exited under water into the river, to pop up and ambush SV/US troops and tanks then dissappear just as fast back into the tunnels. It is now a tourist attraction where we were able to go through some of the tunnels (enlarged slightly for westerners!) had to stooop almost double and needed a torch. I went the wrong way and came out by climbing up abou 30 ft. of ladder from the depths in darkness and pushing up a heavy lid to get out at a spot deep in the jungle instead of on the path. This caused some consternation to one of the staff. The VC had sleeping quarters, kitchens (piping the smoke to come out well away from tunnels causing americans to drop bombs in harmless places), dining rooms, armament manufacturing rooms (often using discarded/used bits of US stuff), traps with horrible spikes for SV/US troops to fall into, all the things they needed for a large community to survive and make guerilla warfare over many years until the SV/US were defeated. All quite difficult for australian David, whose brother fought here for 2 years.
Spent rest of day wandering around HCMC/Saigon, taking photos, raeding, watched a film in the evening, its a busy schedule so took the opportunity to chill out for half a day and evening.
7.55am now, about to leave for Mekong delta cruise.
Best of Health to everyone,
John