Cu Chi tunnels and train ride to Hoi An

We set off at 6.30 this morning to the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Vietcong hid during the war. It comprises an intricate system of tunnels underground with camouflaged exits here and there in order for the Vietcong to spring surprise attacks on the Americans.The tunnels were dug by local people using shovels and extends for more than 125 miles. They were used for living quarters for several months at a time and although the Americans knew of their existence they had difficulty locating them and often got caught in man traps set by the Vietcong.
We were allowed to experience a small section of the tunnels, the entrances so narrow that some of our group were too large to fit in. Mike and some others had a go, crawling on hands and knees in complete darkness with bats flicking across their faces and accompanying screams from a couple of the girls.
Heading back to the hotel we only had time to collect our luggage in order to catch the 13.15 train to Hoi An. Being New year, we couldn't get tickets on the planned 19.30 departure, so had to forego our visit to the war museum in HCMC.
The train station was bursting at the seams with travellers heading out of the city to join their families in the country for New Year celebrations. We were allocated a compartment with four berths, but found we had to get Huy's help to tell three Vietnamese women that it was our compartment. Apparently each four berth compartment is allocated to six people, so we'd had to pay for six in order to secure it for our group. We were lucky, three of our group not so, they had a family of three in the remaining bunk. Even Huy had to sleep in the corridor! We still had someone sitting on a small stool within our compartment for some time during the journey, but didn't mind. Everyone climbed over everyone else, nobody complained, children slept with parents and there wasn't a whinge between them for the whole of the journey, everyone just smiled and made sure you could pass between them. They are amazing people, the Vietnamese! Seeing the food trolley make its regular appearance trying to get through was quite something, with more people cramming into our compartment, although only briefly. We were able to shut the door during the night though and all managed to get a fairly decent sleep although we were only provided with two pillows and two thin blankets between us, suspecting that the others had been 'nicked' before we'd arrived....
We shared our compartment with the two other 'oldies' in the group, Greg from Australia and Judith from Yorkshire, both very nice as is the rest of this group. We all got on well and shared snacks that we had brought with us for the journey.
We settled In for a long and fairly uncomfortable journey, admittedly not as uncomfortable as some of the locals, who were standing, sitting and sleeping in the narrow corridors outside, some presumably for the whole trip to Hanoi, a mere two nights and one and a half day.....
Our journey was only 21 hours long a doddle in comparison! Well, The Orient Express it was not, but it was an adventure not to be missed anyway! To tell the truth we were very happy to arrive mid morning at Hoi An, check in at our hotel and go for a delicious lunch in this very beautiful town.