We went straight to the Post Office after arriving in Vietnam. We look around inside the building but not how they worked. Souvenirs are also available for us to purchase there.The post office looks quite big from the outside. It looks impressive. However it is regretted that we cant see how they work. I learnt how the Vietnamese use mail as a form of communication. It is very old fashioned as compared to Singapore as we seldom send mail by the post office anymore. It made me realised how fortunate we are to live in Singapore, where most families owns a computer each and they could just send an email to the other party. They can save the time neededto travel to the post office and spend the time on more useful things.
Next, we went to the Cu Chi Tunnel. The journey to there was a long one and most of us were sleeping on the bus. Upon reaching the place, we attended a talk and watched a video to understand the history behind the tunnels. We learnt more about the Vietnam War, how they used the tunnel against the Americans and experienced how the Vietnamese travelled in the tunnel. It was amazing to know that the Vietnamese built the tunnel, which was about 200km long, manually with simple tools. They also created many amazing traps that were useful against the Americans. The journey in the tunnel was very tiring. We had to duck walk all the way as the height of the tunnel was quite low. The living conditions are simply unbearable. It is beyond imagination how the Vietnamese soldiers survived through the war in these harsh conditions. Although it was physically demanding, we endured it and realised it was quite interesting. After the journey, most of us had muscle aches for the next few days. It is definitely an enriching experience to go through what the Vietnamese soldier experience during the war. I learnt how the Vietnamese persevered against the Americans in the Vietnam War and had to live in such cramped living conditions just to fight for their own independence.
Day 4
After breakfast, we went to the Bao Dai Villa. The villa was quite big and magnificent and had many rooms. The place was well preserved and was in good condition although it was built in 1938, which was 70 years ago. Portraits of the emperor, empress, prince and princess were present in each of their bedrooms. We explored the building and learnt about this emperor that was previously unknown to most of us.
It was finally time for us to leave Dalat. We spent close to 10 hours on the bus before we reached Saigon, which is Ho Chi Minh City.
HELLO.