Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

On November 11, we flew from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Siagon.  This is the countries largest city of 9 million people and 6 million motorbikes.  The traffic is unbelievable!  We did a city tour in the afternoon passing the Catholic Cathedral of Notre Dame and the Old post office.  Outside of the church there was a girl selling rice paper pizzas and they were very good!

The next day we visited the Cho Chi Tunnels - a 125 mile long underground maze where thousands of fighters and villagers hid and fought during the Vietnam War.  The Viet Cong built this vast network of tunnels in and around the district of Cho Chi, north of Siagon, and worked continually over 25 years to expand the multi-level network.  The tunnels, which included mess halls, meeting rooms, medical facilities, small factories, and vast ammunition stores, allowed the Viet Cong to control large areas near Siagon.  Our guide showed us an entrance, about 2' x 2' and we crawled down to a small operating room and back out another equally small exit.  

On the way to the tunnels we stopped at a rice paper making establishment and I tried my had at making rice paper.  I hate to say this but I was a miserable failure!

That evening we went to a traditional water puppet show.  It was entertaining.  The puppeteers controlled their puppets with long sticks under the water.

After the puppet show we took a cyclo-rickshaw ride thru the streets of Ho Chi Minh City that was pretty thrilling, and ended our evening with a cooking class at a culinary institute.  We learned how to make chicken with ginger in a clay pot.