Today we woke up early because we took a full day tour to Cu Chi Tunnel and Cao Dai Temple start on 8 am. Mrs Vu (the hotel owner) booked the tour for us which costs $8. FYI, do not book any tour via online, usually it’s much expensive than the usual price, better approaching travel agents directly once you arrive in HCMC. Cu Chi tour half day should be around $5, Mekong Delta 1 day tour is around $7 and City tour is around $10.
After breakfast, Mrs Vu gave me the receipt, and I spotted that she’d booked us for half day tour to Cu Chi Tunnel (without Cao Dai Temple). Tried not to panic, I reminded her that we wanted full day tour, hope we could get it. For few minutes she tried to contact several tour agents until finally she got spots for us. We were picked up by a guy and sent us to this minibus. The tour guide was too much speaking, in a bad way, I didn’t like it! First we went to Handicapped Handicrafts, a workshop for handicapped people, victims of toxic chemicals from US war or they called it Agent Orange. Two hours later we arrived in Cao Dai temple, where 3 religions mixed: Buddhism, Taoism, Kong Hu Chu. We saw they were praying.
After that, we stopped by in small restaurant for lunch, the foods were not that good. Two f*cking hours later finally we arrived in Cu Chi. It was so depressing to see former war prints, imagined how many people died there. The most exciting part is when we went inside one of the small tunnels. We had to bend over to walk inside, it was so dark and hot, really not suitable for people who have claustrophobia. Around 4.30 pm we went back to Ho Chi Minh City. It was just 1.5 hour. Apparently Cu Chi Tunnel is closer than Cao Dai Temple, and more interesting. We should just booked half day tour without visiting the temple, because for me it’s too far and not worth it.
On the way back, we were all sweaty and tired. And there’s one guy who spread ‘Agent Orange’ inside the minibus. Do you know people from one particular race who are always smelly? Ya, that one. Sorry for being racist, but seriously those people should have their own tour.
Arrived back in Hotel, we met again with our local friend, Vinh and her niece. We told her that we wanted to eat Banh Xeo, Vietnamese pancake. The most famous one is Banh Xeo 64 in Dinh Cong Trang. She ordered for us which ones the best. There were spring rolls of noodle and shrimp and raw vegetables, being eaten with a sweet sauce. I personally would prefer the fried spring rolls, but those Vietnamese seem really like this raw food. The main course is Banh Xeo, which is pancake contains of tauge (bean sprouts) and shrimp. The way to eat it is very unique. Cut the pancake, put it on top of one leaf of (again) vegetable, roll the leaf, dip it in sour and spicy sauce, then eat it. Vietnamese eat so many vegetables.
We went back home by taxi. We just realized our VND only left 50.000. I asked the driver if he received USD money, but he didn’t understand. So we planned to alight the taxi when the metres had reached almost 50.000. Hopefully it’s already close enough by our hotel.
That was our last night in Vietnam.
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