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	After the van shuttles us out of the busy Saigon area, Sue and Stephanie are ready to hop on the bikes.	Bob and our guide Shang next to the van.	Great guide Shang with Vietnam Bike Tours.	All of us about to start biking.	Bob's typical view from the back of the pack. Vietnam flags flying everywhere still.

	We are on very quiet side roads.	We stop for a water break and look in detail at the rice fields. This one has no rice kernels yet.	This rice is about 2 weeks older and has rice kernels.	Close-up of the rice. Still needs another couple weeks to mature.	In the irrigation canal, fish traps are common. Fish swim into this area...

	and get trapped into this area.	Rice fields growing everywhere, most places here are irrigated.	Drilling a well - the guys standing on top of the drilling rig.	A roadside fruit stand, our guide goes over to look for munchies for us.	We see a few cars here and there, but it's pretty quiet.

	Shang our guide buys some panan leaf wrapped tapioca for us.	Stephanie and Sue.	We stop at a cofeehouse for bathroom break, tea or coffee, and hang out in hammocks for a few minutes.	Nice shelters with hammocks. There is plenty of shade but also nice breeze.	The front of the coffee shop has tables and chairs.

	We hang out in the rear section.	banana leaf wrapped around...	tapioca. Tasty!	For Annie	Sue in hammock

		Stephanie	Our awesome guide Shang	Bob

	LOVE the countdown timers on the street lights!	Next we ride through a shady area of rubber trees.		In Malaysia the rubber trees were milked for their sap via cuts low on trunk, sap running down the trunk into a can. Here the cuts are made higher with strings giving a vertical path to the ground.	Sap is collected into a small cup on the bottom of each string. It's the dry season now so sap is not flowing.

	This allows many more small cuts on the tree.	So strings and little bowls are all over. Many small bowls or one big can, pro's and con's each way.	Little sticks to act like a tripod ???	Larger trunk cuts like in Malaysia are used here too.	After about 20km of cycling, we reach the Cu Cri tunnel complex. Leave the bikes with the van and grab our water bottles for the walking tour.

	Nice map of the area.	Our guide gets tickets while we hit the restroom. Again yellow flowers everywhere.	First, we see some missiles and bombs and guns used during the war.

	And of course the gift shop	As we enter we get a sticker on our shirts.	Intro propaganda film. Victors write the history book so zero mention of it having been a civil war between north and south vietnam.	Enemy was the US with the big B52 bombers. Heavy emphasis on civilian causalties causing the Cu Cri locals to fight back to avenge their dead family members.	Next we walk to a small clearing covered with leaves and the guide asks us to find the tunnel entrance. After stamping around to find a hollow-sounding area, we find it.

	Bob hops down in.	Now the guide is calling "enemy coming, get in and pull the cover back over and cover it up with leaves so it's not visible. Quickly!"	Would take some practice to get the leaves covering everything as the last person pulls the cover in place.

	Barely visible! Bob is inside!		Next Stephanie hops in.		the entrance is pretty small!

		Stephanie covers the hatch with leaves before pulling it over herself.		Invisible!

	Stephanie hops back out.			Next we see why stamping around on the forest floor to find tunnel entrances is such a bad idea - booby traps!	Pivoting in the middle, stepping on either side drops you into a pit with sharp metal stakes.

	A sticking trap:	Step on this plate and the small horizontal stakes...	come together in the middle and skewer your leg.	Rollers with barbs catch you in the legs, waist, or armpit.	"window trap"

	"folding chair trap"	"swinging up trap"	Barbs angled down so once you got in, you can't get out.	"see-saw trap"	House door entry trap, swings down as you open the door of a house.

	These guys were very inventive!	Showing how the traps were made in a military workshop.	All these guys lived underground while manufacturing traps.	Our guide explains how life was back then.	The US bomb fragments were used for the metal for these traps.

	Easy to see how these came from the bomb remains, and from unexploded bombs.	Another example of a tunnel entry, this one is much bigger.	From bottom looking down the horizontal tunnel - bats hanging from the ceiling.	Bob climbs back out.	Stephanie goes down this one.

			More mannequins showing life back then.

	Termite mounds are everywhere here. They were used to disguide air holes down to the tunnels.	This one is easy to see now... but with leaves covering it, not so much.	And a hole at the top of the mound, covered with live leaves, would be invisible too.	US tank.	"American M41 tank was destroyed by a delay mine in 1970" Lots of metal to re-use here!

	Next, to the shooting range. You can actually shoot many different types of guns.	You only have to buy the bullets. 25,000 VND is about a dollar US.	Buy a couple bullets...	and head down to the shooting range.

	Sign says "Just for the shooters"	Very nice hill of sand / dirt at this range.	Showing size of the bullets.	Next, showing how this machine hulls rice	Then this is spun to grind rice.

	Used tires were cut up...	for sandals.	Different sized tires made different sized sandals.	A bomb crater.	Sue's down at the bottom of the crater to show how large it is.

	Next, into the tunnels for an extended crawl. These are enlarged tunnels for western tourists.	Sue emerging after about a 30m crawl.	Stephanie emerges.	In the tunnel, 25C and 100% humidity. Zero air movement. Sweat just rolls off us. How did they LIVE down here for days on end?	Next, we go down a smaller diameter tunnel for about a 50m crawl. Thie one drops and twists and turns more.

	Bob emerges after a long crawl.	We come out into an underground bunker area.			Next our guide demonstrates climbing a vine to get up into the trees to hide.

	Stephanie climbs right up.

	Underground kitchens had long tunnels to vent the smoke/steam elsewhere.	We take a break with tea and tapioca dipped in peanuts.	Leaves from tapioca	tapioca root	Back on the bikes, and stop for a quick drink of cane sugar juice. We'd seen the machines in Cambodia and here but hadn't actually tried it.

	Feed in the sugar cane to the crushing machine.	Grab it out the back	and re-feed it through a few times.	Juice is fed into a bowl.	Scooped out and added to ice, and then salted lemon is added for a great taste.

	Again we relax in hammocks while the juice is made.	Bob	With the salted lemon added, it's very tasty!	Then we pedal to lunch. Authentic Pho coming!	At a small roadside cafe.

	Our van driver loads up the bikes while we eat lunch.	Really good pho! Our guide piles on the red chilis...	and adds a second plate of chilis! Bob and Sue can't eat evenone chili, he puts in two plates worth!	Back in the van for the drive back to Saigon. Here the road is divided into separate sections for cars versus scooters.	Scooters carrying eggs piled high.

	The sticker we got at the tunnel complex.	Our bike ride - really about 26km cuz I forgot to turn it back on after pausing it for the walk around the tunnels.	Where the tunnels are from Saigon. This is the MapOut app on Sue's iphone, which isn't specific for bicycling but has offline maps.

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