Rambo: First Blood Part II

The roar of the sea of mopeds and a few cars is almost deafening. There are far too many to count even when they are stopped at traffic lights, which is rare. Never have I longed for traffic laws as I do now, praying to God that I don't end up as an unwanted passenger on a two-wheeled vehicle from Hades.

As I would come to find out later, though, crossing the street is much safer if you do not look both ways before crossing - it won't do you any good. You see, rarely is there ever a time when a thousand mopeds aren't flying passed you as you wait to cross an intersection. Observing the local pedestrians' interaction with traffic, the moped drivers seem to be accustomed to dodging people. The problems arise if you try to sprint across the street or make quick, unexpected movements. Although you might think you are fast, the mopeds have engines and are much faster. Don't try to out think them; let them make the judgements.

Needless to say, that was the only run I went on during my trip to Vietnam. There was also a 10K race that was to be held on that coming Sunday; I really wanted to race it but was informed that we would be cruising the Mekong River then. Bummer.

After coming within inches of my life on numerous occasions, I got back to my room in time to shower, get ready, and pack my camera before heading down to have a breakfast of eggs, OJ, and bread, lots of bread.

We got on our tour bus by 8 and headed the Cu Chi tunnels, a battleground of the Vietnam War. We watched a brief, anti-American video, and then hiked through some trails, looking at (and attempting to fit into) entrances of some VC war tunnels. My attempt was largey unsuccessful.

We emerged into the open, viewing a conspicuously placed sign:



Uhuh, that's what I'm talking about. Every boy's dream came true for me that day when I shot an AK-47 and an M30. I truly felt like Rambo, oh wait, I was Rambo! Yes, they were loud; yes, they were powerful; and yes, it was one of the highlights of the trip.

But enough about guns, it's tunnel time! Imagine yourself descending into a dark pit, and then proceeding down a corridor that is about the size of the entrance to a dog house. 100 meters later we emerged, dirty, hot, and sweaty but thankful to be back in the cool, 90 degree humidity of South Vietnam. Ahh yes, the wonderful weather of Southeast Asia. I love it.

But enough with the seriousness. The next tunnel we crawled through was the lowest and smallest type, three levels down. Let me just say that I could tell it was smaller. Can anyone say, Chuck E Cheese tubes that are not made out of plastic, that are square, pitch dark, dirty, slightly poorer air quality (although not much worse for those of you who have been to Chuck E Cheese's lately), and come with spiders (big ones) for no extra charge? I definitely won't forget that one. It was an adventure, though, and I love adventures; I felt even more like Rambo - think of the scene in Part I where he's in that cave after he almost gets killed by a rocket launcher. That was me in the Cu Chi tunnels.

After all that, we had lunch saw some monkeys, and took lots of pictures of the only mountain in South Vietnam, which has a pretty flat, rice patty producing, landscape. The mountain, Ba Den, is about 900 meters tall and 15 kilometers from the Cambodian border. I asked if I could climb it but they thought I was joking around. These people don't know me too well yet.








Then we visited a Cao Dai temple, close by. Caodaism is one of the main religions of the country and is native to Vietnam (99% of its followers live there). This religion basically combines all the main religions of the world and propose that the one true God gave a revelation that clarified and reconciled all the religions to form Caodaism. Sounds like a plan but I think I'll stick with Christianity for now.

That night, we feasted on, Surprise!, Vietnamese food. Being the connoisseur of food that I am, I ate a lot. It was good. I won't describe it for you because I have much more to talk about and it will force you to visit Vietnam if you really want to know what the food is like (ok, if you really want to know you can ask me sometime).

Great sleep that night too filled with dreams of guns, tunnels and mountains...