So this morning we were up early with breakfast at 6am and departure at 7am. Breakfast was a mix of Vietnamese and English but really delicious.

We had a 2 hour bus journey to our first stop through rush hour – I’m really glad we weren’t cycling as it was chaos. 14 million people live in Ho Chi Minh City and there are around 8 million mopeds in the city.

Our first stop was the Cu Chi Tunnels. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but it was so interesting and pretty horrifying all at the same time. The first part of the tunnels were built during the French occupation in 1956-58 just as hiding places but once the American war started the Viet Com extended the tunnels and built 2 lower levels to ensure the bombs couldn’t get them and also agent orange didn’t affect them. The tunnels now extend over 250km.

The first thing we saw were the booby traps that the Viet Com set – they were horrendous and probably led to a very slow and painful death.

We then saw some of the tunnels. These were tiny and so narrow and to think that people lived in them for years is pretty unbelievable. We climbed down into one of the entrance tunnels and also walked through around 200m of one of the. It’s definitely an experience as you have to walk hunched over and it’s quite claustrophobic.

The tunnels did have ventilation systems with bamboo. The outside ventilation was built to look like a termite or anthill with snake holes. It was very clever. The Americans did twig though and used dogs to sniff out the men in the tunnels so the Viet Com cut up American soilders clothes and put them.in the ventilation holes to confuse the dogs.

We saw some of the tanks and artillery, how some of it was made – the Viet Com soldiers sawing up unexploded bombs etc.

We also saw a Vietnamese lady making the rice wraps for spring rolls from the rice milk and also learnt how the rice wine was made.

The last thing we saw was some of the bunkers, some of these have now been opened up so you can see what they looked like.

We had a small cup of jasmine tea and some cassava before leaving the tunnels.

Then it was back in the bus for around 2 and a half hours, a little snooze, before our lunch stop. Here we also picked up our bikes which had miraculously appeared by van.

We then cycled for around 50km. The route was through some main roads, some concrete paths, some muddy paths and some gravel. The roads were crazy, moped driving towards you on the wrong side of the road, everyone just taking their chance at junctions and very few mopeds with lights on once it was dark.

It was hot and humid to start but we also had some torrential rain that lasted quite a while and some hailstones.

Around half way in Lou was hit by a moped head on – it was over our side of the road, it was going to fast and it was wet. I didn’t actually see it happen but luckily Lou is ok – just quite a deep cut on her knee.

The scenery was beautiful, very lush and green. Unfortunately it’s really hard to take photos whilst cycling, especially in the rain.

So an interesting first day.

Dinner was at the hotel and it was delicious. I’m really enjoying the food. We popped to the bar over the road for a drink. Ali and I ordered mojito but think we ended up with like juice!