The bus ride to the Cu Chi tunnels was about an hour so we were able to see some interesting things along the way. The picture above is a
cemetery. The Vietnamese people build little houses over the burial site. They believe that when you die you go onto live somewhere else so they build a house and bury them with some
possessions to help them on the other side. Some even are buried with their passports and money because they hoped to be able to travel to other parts of the world and the families want to make sure they have their passports. They also believe they can get these
possessions to their ancestors by burning them, so there is a large industry of paper objects a person would want to pass on to their ancestors. For example, if you want your ancestor to have a car in the next life you can burn a paper car and the smoke will take it to them; or you can burn money or credit cards and the smoke will take it to them. There are businesses that specialize in making copies of the stuff you want to send your ancestors. I kept seeing guys burning money, but it's fake money. Hopefully, the smoke will take the money to their ancestors in a usable form, maybe that's why they send credit cards now. What if they don't take Visa in the next life?
We passed by lots of rubber trees. These were all replanted after the war here because this area received massive bombing during the war.
Jonny posing with Debbie
Galicia in their little hats. No,
Jonny didn't wear it for real just for the picture.
This is the entrance to the Cu Chi tunnels. I'm not sure why they built this modern tunnel to get to the area.
The Cu Chi tunnels were built by the
Viet Cong where they lived and hid during the war. They started building the tunnels during their war with France before the US came in. They built 250 kilometers of tunnels and living quarters underground during the Vietnam War. Some would live down here for three months at a time in hiding. The US and South Vietnam could never find them. They would come out at night to set traps and would appear like ghosts to fight. These tunnels were very sophisticated with
ventilation systems, living quarters, meeting areas, water wells, and tunnels to move miles underground. They would even cook underground using fire and the smoke was released through a series of small outlets in the mornings and would appear as fog to the people outside. In the middle of this picture you see several small squares leading to the surface; these are smoke chambers. They cooked underground and by the time the smoke got to the surface it
dissipated into almost nothing.
The bus ride to the Cu Chi tunnels was about an hour so we were able to see some interesting things along the way. The picture above is a cemetery. The Vietnamese people build little houses over the burial site. They believe that when you die you go onto live somewhere else so they build a house and bury them with some possessions to help them on the other side. Some even are buried with their passports and money because they hoped to be able to travel to other parts of the world and the families want to make sure they have their passports. They also believe they can get these possessions to their ancestors by burning them, so there is a large industry of paper objects a person would want to pass on to their ancestors. For example, if you want your ancestor to have a car in the next life you can burn a paper car and the smoke will take it to them; or you can burn money or credit cards and the smoke will take it to them. There are businesses that specialize in making copies of the stuff you want to send your ancestors. I kept seeing guys burning money, but it's fake money. Hopefully, the smoke will take the money to their ancestors in a usable form, maybe that's why they send credit cards now. What if they don't take Visa in the next life?
We passed by lots of rubber trees. These were all replanted after the war here because this area received massive bombing during the war.
Jonny posing with Debbie Galicia in their little hats. No, Jonny didn't wear it for real just for the picture.
This is the entrance to the Cu Chi tunnels. I'm not sure why they built this modern tunnel to get to the area.
The Cu Chi tunnels were built by the Viet Cong where they lived and hid during the war. They started building the tunnels during their war with France before the US came in. They built 250 kilometers of tunnels and living quarters underground during the Vietnam War. Some would live down here for three months at a time in hiding. The US and South Vietnam could never find them. They would come out at night to set traps and would appear like ghosts to fight. These tunnels were very sophisticated with ventilation systems, living quarters, meeting areas, water wells, and tunnels to move miles underground. They would even cook underground using fire and the smoke was released through a series of small outlets in the mornings and would appear as fog to the people outside. In the middle of this picture you see several small squares leading to the surface; these are smoke chambers. They cooked underground and by the time the smoke got to the surface it dissipated into almost nothing.
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