The Handicapped Store and the Cu Chi Tunnels

On Friday, we took our first bus tour to see the Cu Chi Tunnels.  On the way our first pit stop was a handicapped handicraft store.  It was a two hour bus trip to the tunnels and the tour company has their first bathroom stop here at this shop.  As you enter you are greeted by table upon table of handicapped people working on pictures and all sorts of lacquered ware products.  Many are made with egg shells or sea shells.  It was all done by hand and was absolutely beautiful.  I wanted to buy so many things but only had twenty minutes, so Mark promised me that when we get our own place we could go back and check them out again. 

The final stop was the Cu Chi Tunnels, an area near Ho Chi Minh City that during the war was famous for its underground tunnels.  The tunnel network became legendary during the 1960's for its role in facilitating the Viet Cong control of a large rural area.  The maze of tunnels was amazing. Most were destroyed by US bombings.  Some of the entrances to the tunnels are so small that the people had to hold their hands above their heads to descend into them.  See some of the pictures.  In these tunnels they had hospitals, eating areas and supply centers.  There were also many booby traps for the American Soldiers, that tried to enter them. According to the authors of the book The Tunnels of Cu Chi, it was the most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated and generally devastated area in the history of warfare.  Today they have replanted much of the foliage and crops but there is still a poor outcome of crops due to the chemicals used.