January 29, 2015.  We are the walking wounded today.  Stella's knee hurt her so much that she opted out in this morning's excursion.   I was doing fine.  Or so I thought.  When I got out of bed, my lower back was so tight and hurting, I didn't think I could put my shoes on.  Two and a half hours on the boat sitting on hard wooden chairs had caught up with me apparently.  Not to mention the hours on the bus and planes.  And the cherry on the cake - no hot water this morning.  This hotel is really nice, too.  Everyone must have been the shower at the same time.

I hobbled to the bus to go to Cu Chi anyway.  Cu Chi is where the tunnel system is.  It was really interesting to see how the Viet Cong did that.  156 miles of tunnels.  We sat through the worst example of a propaganda film yet.  It was made in1967 and featured American Killer heroes.  Vietnamese who had killed the most of our troops.  Even though I know that it's just propaganda, I was repulsed by it.  Then we walked around and saw the traps and devices that they used against the U.S. troops.  At one point, we could go down and walk about 30-40 feet through a tunnel to where there was a place to get out.   It continued on to two more of the stairs out.  I didn't go in the tunnel.  I might have if it didn't involve the stairs since my back hurt so much.  About half of the group did it.  Then we walked past a shooting range where you could shoot aK 47's and another large gun.  I can't remember what it was but it cost $2 a bullet.  From all the noise, lots of people were shooting.

It took us two hours to get there and back due to traffic.  It is estimated that there are 10 million motorbikes on the road every day in this country.  Another interesting fact or two:  94 percent literacy rate here and I'm thinking that our guide told us education here is free.  Elementary students go five days a week, and middle school and secondary students go six days a week.  Also, 56 percent of the adult male population smokes.  Several people have tried to sell us Marlboro cigarettes.

When I got back to the room, Stella had recovered so we walked to the Hard Rock Cafe so I could expand my pin collection and ate there.  Those hamburgers and fries tasted really good.  😊. I had taken a Tylenol of hers so my back was better also.

This evening, we went to see the AO show at the Saigon Opera House.  Great building, looks like it was built about 1900.  The show was kind of a cirque de soleil production but it kind of reminded me of the native dances of the Polynesian people, too.  Very good, the cast was amazing.  Extremely fit and athletic.

Tomorrow, we are off to the Mekong Delta and will spend the night there.