Monday, February 17, 2014

Today we went to the historic Cu Chi Tunnels, about a 90 minute drive from Ho Chi Minh City’s centre. It was really interesting to learn about the history of the American War in Vietnam from the perspective of a man (our tour guide) who lived through it and whose father fought in it.  The tunnels themselves are incredibly narrow – you need strong legs to crouch down while walking and squirming through them.  And you definitely can’t be claustrophobic!  The total cost for the round trip bus, tour guide and entrance fee to the tunnels was 160,000VND, just over $8.

We were starving when we came home from the trip, so had our leftover pasta – our first dinner we ever cooked in Vietnam in our apartment! We got all the ingredients at a grocery store by Lam Son Pool and the total (for 4+ servings) was under $10 – and that INCLUDES a $4 jar of olives and the pasta (of which we’ll still have lots left over)! So really, less than $6 for 4 meals! Our pasta sauce was made with chicken breast (about$1.50 for 500g!), sliced green olives, broccoli, onion, garlic, fresh basil leaves, pepper and chili pepper and blended/pureed cherry tomatoes, served over penne.  A bit of baguette on the side... parfait J Here’s a photo of our leftovers on Monday night:

As a side note, these fruit on the trees at the Cu Chi tunnel site (jack fruit I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong!) were seriously huge. Bigger than my face!