The Cu Chi Tunnels near Ho Chi Minh City are an incredible destination for war and history buffs. During the Vietnam War it was the major battleground between the U.S and Viet Cong.
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In the heart of the jungle, 200km of tunnels were well hidden from American soldiers. Originally built to protect the Vietnamese from French air strikes in the lat 1940's to 1950's, they were re-used during the 60's as a staging ground for attacks on American troops.
Surprisingly, the U.S. knew that the tunnels were there, they simply could not find them or destroy them. They put everything they had into taking out the tunnels from dispersing agent orange and napalm to relentlessly dropping bombs, but the caves remained in tact. The land didn't fare as well and the jungle was completely destroyed along with everything in it. Today it is thriving once again however, showing that with time, the earth can repair even the harshest results of destruction.
If you are lucky, you may receive a first hand account from a former Vietnamese soldier. Guides will tell you stories of their time in the war and can give you information on intimate details of the war that took place in this jungle. If you listen carefully, you can learn a great deal about history.
The Viet Cong used the jungle to their advantage. They could run through with ease, knowing their way around their own land and had several cave entrances at the ready to disappear into. They were hidden well with termite hills placed atop, or with leaves scattered above. Guide dogs could not follow their scent because they would sprinkle cayenne pepper around the entrance confusing the dogs and making them turn in the opposite direction. They could safely disappear into the 200 km system and if followed, the American soldiers couldn't fit inside anyway. The entrances were tiny and made for a slight frame, for a large U.S. soldier, fitting in would be almost impossible without blasting it.
They knew their tunnels well, unlike the American soldier. They would enter the tunnel avoiding the booby traps placed to kill or maim the enemy. Several different types of crude traps were laid in wait for the poor soldier that had to follow them in or the soldier that was sent to investigate upon a discovery.
There were other tactics besides the tunnels that offered the Vietnamese an advantage against the United States. Surprisingly, foot rot was a major problem with U.S. soldiers. The heat and humidity of the rain forest caused sores, rotting flesh and infection. When your major form of battle is to walk through the jungle this 황제투어 can be a serious problem. Instead of wearing boots, the Vietcong wore rubber sandals made from tires. They are well constructed and durable and you can see them for yourself. If you want to try them out, buy a pair for a nominal fee.
It is impossible to imagine how people managed to live in these tunnels for several years. The passageways were very tight at less than a meter high and they were dark and filled with disease. They had to deal with insects and venomous snakes and the fear of being found out. However, the Vietnamese managed to carve out a way of life however building kitchens, living areas and first aid stations.
Your tour will take you to all of the different types of living quarters and rooms. It is a comfortable tour and the tunnel walls have even been blasted out to make it larger and more comfortable for tourists. However, there are still some original entrances available to be explored and you will have the opportunity to go into an original tunnel yourself and crawl for 150 meters experiencing what it was like during the war.
Your guide will take you to an original entrance which is simply a very small hole in the ground. He will show you how to enter and then you are on your own to squeeze through and make your way to the other end. It can be frightening indeed, but be sure to give it a try. It is a crazy experience to crawl through these tiny tunnels and imagine what it must have been like for its inhabitants.
After you have thoroughly explored the caves, you will also learn other ways that the Vietnamese managed to defeat America. They could track soldiers easily in the jungle by using plants. You will see how they cooked only during the foggy mornings to hide their smoke and you will learn how farmers smuggled food to the Vietcong. It is a very informative day.
Now that you have learned all that there is to know about the Cu Chi Tunnels, you will be given the opportunity to feel what it was like. Believe it or not, you are given the chance to fire and AK 47. Or can choose your automatic weapon of choice and for the cost of $1 a round you can feel the power of these destructive weapons by firing them at the shooting range completing your Vietnam war tour.
Visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels will definitely give you a feeling as to what life was like during the Vietnam War. It is unbelievable to think that these tunnels remained in tact through two major wars. One with the French and one with the Americans. If you are visiting Ho Chi Minh, they are certainly worth a visit.
A whale shark is the worlds biggest species of fish and you have the opportunity to snorkel with them. Every year from April to July the whale sharks come to Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay.
A whale shark can grow up to 15m long and as they are filter feeders they are harmless to humans. They cruise the world's oceans looking for large concentrations to feed on. Ningaloo Reef is one of the few places in the world they appear regularly in large numbers.
This is an opportunity in a life time and people travel all over the world to the Ningaloo Reef during this time to see and swim with them. You will need to be a confident swimmer.
INTERESTING INFO ABOUT THE WHALE SHARK
It is rare to see a whale shark swimming alone. Smaller fish like to swim with whale sharks - sometimes even a whole school of fish will be swimming around them. Pilot fish swim around their head. A popular theory for this is for protection. With the size of the whale shark, the enemy of the pilot fish are too scared to come close therefore leaving the pilot fish alone. Remoras also swim with them. The remoras use its sucker to attach itself to the whale shark and helps the whale shark by eating parasites off its skin.
Whale sharks are considered to be good-luck fish.
The Japanese fishermen are careful not to catch a whale shark. They call them "ebisuzame" which is a good luck symbol.
In Vietnam they are called "Ca Ong", which means "Sir Fish". Sir Fish is a God the Vietnamese fishermen pray to for protection and good catches of fish.
WHALE SHARK BODY PARTS
The first of the whale shark body parts is its teeth. They have thousands of tiny teeth inside its mouth - sometimes up to 4,000. These teeth are about the size of the tip of a match-stick. For the figures people that is about 0.3cm or an 1/8 of an inch.
The teeth are arranged in the mouth in 300 rows. Obviously these teeth are not big enough to be used to eat but they are big enough to help them catch and eat. In fact it is a bit of a mystery why they even have teeth. The teeth are similar to what you will find on a file or rasp.
With all of these teeth another important body part is its mouth. It has a huge mouth which can be up to 2 metres wide. The mouth is at the very front of its head (not on the underside of the head like in most sharks). The head needs to be big to accommodate this huge mouth. It has a wide, flat head, a rounded snout and small eyes. Other body parts include 5 very large gill slits, 2 dorsal fins (on its back) and 2 pectoral fins (on its sides). The first dorsal fin is much larger than the second dorsal fin, and set rearward on the body. Its tail has a top fin much larger than the lower fin. These are called lobed caudal fins and are semi-lunate in adults.
Whale sharks catch their food (plankton and small fish and squid), by swimming with their mouth open. As they swim, water and small animals go into their mouth. The water leaves through its gill slits, trapping food in the gill rakers.
Whale sharks have five gill slits on each side of their head. Gill rakers strain the good stuff out of all this water they take into their mouth and use the good parts for food.
Whale sharks breathe with gills. Gills are used to get oxygen from the water and this helps them breathe.
WHALE SHARK REPRODUCTION AND BIRTH
It was widely believed the whale shark reproduction process and birth was like other fish (oviparous - egg cases expelled from the female's body and hatched on the sea floor). This would involve a female whale shark laying her eggs and the male fertilising them. We now know that a female keeps her eggs inside her body until the babies are ready to be born (viviparous - egg cases hatching in the mother's uteri, with the female giving birth to live young).
A whale shark may have hundreds of thousands of eggs inside her but not every egg will become an embryo. Some of these eggs are actually food for the other eggs that do develop into embryos. An embryo eats the other eggs for energy and therefore to grow.
In 1995 a team of scientists found an 11 metre female whale shark in Taiwan that had been killed by a fisherman. There were about 300 embryos inside her ranging in length from 42 to 63cm. Amazingly, 15 of the embryos were still alive and were ready to be born - an extremely rare form of birth. The egg capsules were amber in colour, with a smooth texture and had a respiratory opening on each side. There were an equal number of male and female babies.
The whale sharks that are born are called pups - the pups are over 60cm (2 feet) long.
Sexual maturity does not occur until they reach about 9metres long. This means a whale shark reproduction maturity age of about 30 years old. Whale sharks live for about 60-100 years.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT WHALE SHARKS
They are actually fish and not whales. Not only that but they are the biggest fish in the world and once fully grown they can be as long as 15 metres in length and weigh 20 tonnes.
They are the biggest fish in the world but they are also a very gentle fish. They eat only plankton and other small fish and are not interested in eating other things. That is why people from all over the world travel to Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay during the spawning of the coral to swim with them. The spawning of the coral happens between March and June. This attracts the whale shark for food.
The correct species name of a whale shark is Rhincodon typus with "Rhincodon" meaning "rasp teeth" - which is what the whale sharks 4,000 tiny teeth look like (a rasp).
Whale shark are a pelagic species. This means they swim in the open ocean but usually found in the tropical parts of the oceans.
They are reddish brown in colour with a pattern of lines that crisscross each other on their skin. Inside these grids are yellow dots.
Additional interesting facts about whale shark is they pay no attention to boats. At their size why would they? So boat owners and captains need to be careful where whale sharks are and it is up to the boat to avoid "accidents".