Cu Chi, Coo.

Well I was up obscenely early this morning after very little sleep in my hot and clammy cell, only to find that breakfast consisting of a loaf of bread and peanut butter did little to dispell my theory that I'm actually in a Vietnamese prison! Rich unfortunately has woken with a stomach bug (but grateful for the supplies of pepto-bismal I bought) so it's Lucy and I setting out for temples and tunnels today.

We're joined on the coach at 8am local time (1am UK with jet lag now set in) by some friends of Rich and Lucy, who they have met in previous travels. It's takes a good hour and a half to clear Saigon and our guide says the countries theory to solving the traffic problems are to copy Singapore and other countries with no traffic control at all!

We arrive at Cau Dai temple late in the morning, in time to see mid day mass, they worship a new religion here which is influenced by Taoism, Buddhism and another which I can't remember - despite the fact the tour guide repeated everything three times to us for an hour. As lovely and colorful as the temple was, for me the enlightenment of the tour was seeing the Vietnamese countryside once we had escaped the clutches of the city.

A reasonable lunch (about 1.50), and we were back on the road to visit the underground tunnels in Cu Chi. In this region of Vietnam a network of tunnels that were all hand dug stretch over a vast 200km area. The heat and the incessant noise from a Danish family who failed to show any interest in their children whatsoever made the journey a little wearing, that combined with a lack of sleep and the bus nearly careering of the road when it struck an oncoming lorry meant I wasn't quite able to show the level of enthusiasm I should have for such a significant part of the countries past. Still crawling just 20metres through one of the 'enlarged for tourists' tunnels was quite an experience and certainly not one for those with claustrophobia.

The day was okay but far too much traveling in the heat for what we actually saw. I was glad to get back to Saigon for a burger and a beer, well I'm off deep into the Meekong Delta for 3 days tomorrow, so I expect to be out of communication - bring on the rivers!!