Today is our fourth day at Vietnam. The past few days were enjoyable, but today was the most tiring and at the same time the most fun!

After a light breakfast, we had a two hour long journey to Cu Chi historical site. On the way, we had a toilet break however, not everyone went down as we were asleep. Finally, having arrived at the Cu Chi tunnel, we were all excited and were looking forward to the tunnel trail. The moment we went in and saw the entrance to the tunnels, we all started taking pictures of us standing in front of it. It was really dark and creepy inside.

Our guide, Mr Hau, gave us a talk about the tunnels for about fifteen minutes and we spent the next fifteen minutes watching a video on how the people lived in the tunnels. After that, Mr Hau brought us around the area and showed us some of the booby traps and how they worked. All of them contained either barbed spikes or land mines. Just imagining the way the enemies were killed made some of us sick.

Hours of talking and walking in the scorching hot sun later, Mr Ho finally brought us to one of the entrances of the Cu Chi tunnel. However, not all of us entered the tunnel. We went into 2 tunnels. For the first one, we walked 100m in the tunnel. The tunnel was only about 1m high and the taller ones had to crawl, while the shorter ones only had to bend their knees and walk through the tunnel. It was hot and the tunnel was really dark. We experienced the lives of blind men in there. In the second tunnel, it was more challenging as we went into the second level of the tunnel. There were slopes every now and then and if we didn’t feel the ground carefully, we might just fall. We had to be extremely careful to avoid losing our foot.

We ended all our sufferings with a great lunch that consisted of free flow of rice and tea, dishes like pork, seafood, egg, vegetables and fruits.

We continued with a two hour long ride back to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). On the way back, we had a pit-stop at the rubber plantation and took some pictures and observed latex dripping from the trees into bowls.

We went back to the bus, to our hotel, Le Duy, to fetch Lynna and Emily who were sick and Mrs Choy, who was taking care of them. Following, we went to the Nghe Xuong Wood Craving Workshop and witness the workers making the products. The items they used included duck’s egg shell and Mother of Pearl to form the designs. They then dipped their product into lacquer solution a few times to polish it. The products being sold were quite costly.

After checking out the wood carving workshop, we headed down to XQ Hand Embroidery. There, all the products are hand embroidered. The artists were really amazing and we were fascinated by how they could produce a work of art that looked exactly like a picture. When we look at the embroidered art pieces from afar, they look life-like and we had to have a closer look for us to realise that they are were all hand embroidered.

After everything, we headed back to the hotel and were given about one and a half hour to freshen up. We met up with everyone at the lobby and took our tour bus to the harbour for a cruise dinner, which was a pleasant surprise as there was no mentioning of a cruise dinner at all. It was nine course dinner consisting of dishes like, spring rolls, meat, vegetables, soup, fruits and the usual free flow of rice and tea. Upon finishing our dinner, we had an approximately forty minute cruise ride around the Saigon River. It was a refreshing experience with soothing live music on our deck being played while we watched the night scenery. At the bottom deck, they were pop-rock music and fire eating performances.

It was a long night and we arrived back at the hotel at around 10. Practically everyone went out for supper at KFC and PEPPERONIS. Today was our most memorable with all the constantly appearing surprises and this being our last night in Vietnam.

Entry by
Lee Wei En Titus (3 Sincerity)
Tan Shao Xuan Geoffrey (3 Sincerity)
Yee Li Ting Lina (3 Sincerity)
Amanda Lee Wen Ting (3 Sincerity)
Sow ShiHui Natalie (3 Integrity)
Emily Loh Min Li (3 Integrity)
Leong Mei Ling Jasmine (3 Integrity)