Saigon, Vietnam: Day 1 - Cu Chi Tunnel Tour

Since we’ll only have 3 full days in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, I booked our Cu Chi Tunnel Tour thru our hotel. Besides, we will be arriving late so I would not have the time to book it at Sinh Tourists as recommended in an online forum. Anyway the rates are the same or almost.

I was quoted $6 for a half day Cu Chi Tour while it’s $8 for Cu Chi + Cao Dai Temple. I’m not interested with the temple so I decided to cut it off the itinerary. That rate only includes the bus and the English-speaking guide but it excludes the entrance fee to the site which is 80,000 VND or roughly about Php 160, more or less.

We were picked up from the hotel a few minutes before 8am. Yes they were right on time, or so I thought. It ended up we still had to pick up other tourists from different hotels and by the time the actual travel to Cu Chi took place was an hour later. It’s a bit of a waste of time. But that’s how it is there. The only thing that was favorable was we were the ones to get on the bus first so I had the liberty to choose our seats, thus taking street pictures was so much easier.

See all those motorcycles? :D

 

Travel time was around 2 hours; maybe less if the bus was faster. However we were informed that there is a speed limit of a maximum of 50 kph. Ambagal, pramis!

We had one stopover so you can go to the restroom, shop at the store, or drink some fresh fruit shake. We did the latter.

This is where we had a stopover where you can see how locals produce their artworks.

A few minutes before arriving at Cu Chi, our guide Dan asked if he could collect the 80,000 VND each for the entrance fee so he could get our tickets as a group since he was informed that there are a lot of tourists on site.

True enough, there were a lot of tourists that day! The first thing we did was watch a short 15-minute presentation about the war, and how the Vietnamese fought for their land. 

 

Next, you will be toured around the jungle where you will see how the tunnels during the war looks like, the kinds of trap and tanks they used, and the weapons they themselves made. You’ll be amazed at how smart the Vietnamese were. There is also a firing range there where you can buy bullets for a little amount and try firing with real guns. 

yey, kasya ako! :D

 

Don’t leave Cu Chi without experiencing passing thru the tunnel. Our guide said it is 100 meters long but there is an exit every 20 meters. I challenged my mom to finish it and she did! Being an Asian with a relatively smaller body frame is an advantage here that’s why we were the only ones who did it in our group since mostly were westerners and the tunnel is really narrow.

all sweaty! imagine how hot it is inside the tunnel!

At the end of the tour, they will serve tea and cassava (kamoteng kahoy) or steamed tapioca to Westerners. There are souvenir items being sold too should you want to buy one. All in all, the tour was very informative and worth it, considering its price. It lasted for about 7 hours including pick up of guests and travel to and fro.