Half Day Tour to Cu Chi Tunnels (Including Gun Firing & Lacquered Painting Factory) @ Ho Chi Minh City [Vietnam]

Barely 8.00 am and we were already out of our hotel; on a mini passenger van that would bring us to our very first half-day trip in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC); to the world famous and must-visit Cu Chi Tunnels!

There were separate detailed postings related to this half day tour which you can read further in the links below. What's in this post would be the summary for the entire journey, from start to end, which means a lot of photos taking while I was in the vehicle travelling to and fro the tunnels. 

(1) Lacquer Painting Factory

(2) Củ Chi Tunnels

(3) Firing a Gun (an AK47)

Fruits in season at HCMC; pineapples and dragon fruits! Unlike Singapore, where we import fruits from many countries, the fruits found in most countries are likely more seasonal and based on local productions.

Huge slabs of raw meat sold in markets! This would be a scene you don't see in Singapore. Since more than two decades ago, the Singapore government had dictated that raw meat should be in fridge, and not exposed to the weather elements, especially given the hot climate in Singapore.

 

Tree lined roads; what tree species are they? I think they would be great for Singapore as the ones we have often had a broad crown and require constant trimming in order not to affect buildings and towering vehicles like fire engines, double decker buses, trucks etc.

Vintage car! Our tour guide, Kim, was an energetic lady and tried her best to perk us up with information about Vietnam, HCMC and shared nuggets of information like the 24 different districts in the economic city, 12 with numbers and 12 with names.  

WINK Hotel; it's actually one of the newer hotels in HCMC and their rooms were really captivating. Only issue was the location although it's something that GRAB ride can easily solve.

Phap Hoa Buddhist Temple; located next to the Nhieu Loc canal, this has a history of almost 100 years, with its founding year stated as 1928. The pagoda itself is also designated as a historical relic by Vietnam's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The sheer number of motorbikes in HCMC never fails to amaze me.

Even though Củ Chi Tunnels are in HCMC, it's on the outskirts of the city, where cattle roamed freely on green fields and farmlands. Such sights always impress the ignorant urbanites like me.

Learning more about lacquer painting from this factory that supposed employed those people affected by the effects of Agent Orange during and even the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Click here to read more. 

On the road again.

Saw an interesting vehicle; a hearse and befitting the Vietnamese's respect for their national flower, the lotus image was literally all over it. In Buddhism, the lotus is also "associated with purity, spiritual awakening, and faithfulness".

Phap Hiep Buddhist Temple; it was said that over 50% of Vietnamese identified themselves as Buddhism, although a unique religion has evolved since 1920 that comprises of principles from Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism and Roman Catholicism. That religion is known as Cao Dai.

Parish of Cu Chi; a Catholic church that was said to be built in 2003. Christianity in Vietnam was "first introduced to Vietnam in the 16th century" and the composition of Catholics and Protestants were said to be 7% and 2% respectively.

Green fields again.

"Thánh tịnh Tinh Quang Đẩu" - no idea what this religion abode was and I had to run a check on Google. It's actually a temple / church under the Cao Dai religion. 

Directions towards the Củ Chi Tunnels; strangely, there were two different directions! Our friendly tour guide, Kim, mentioned that there were two sites; Ben Duoc and Ben Binh. Former was the more original one that still contained "part of the original tunnel system". Left, the vehicle turned towards!

Took a shot of this Guanyin statue. 

Entry to the "attraction". According to my Google translate, this 65,000 dong was said to be for each person, which means entry fee is less than S$4.00. Of course, it could mean vehicle too.

Before this visit, I was given the impression that I had seen enough of Củ Chi Tunnels from travel programmes, vlogs etc but it was incomparable to informative time I spent onsite! You had to experience yourself to understand how tight the tunnels were, and how you can't imagine having to eat tapioca for weeks, months or even years! 

Check out the stitched videos I posted on my YouTube channel! 

After a hot, sweaty session, it's essential to drink water, provided as part of the tour! And a packet of wet wipes, which I would have no use for until mealtime.

A long, straight road to our next destination!

First my very first REAL gun in my entire life! There were many guns to choose from and pricing was based on per BULLET. I just followed the flow and went with the common AK47. A Singaporean friend who read my post said that our army's SAR21 has a self zeroing feature which makes it easier to hit target. Well, I wouldn't know since I was a dental assistant in national service! 

Coming to the end of the tour means 'appraisal time' for our tour guide, Kim, and the tour in general. Departing from old school, handwritten method, we were asked to scan the QR code and leave a comment on TripAdvisor instead! 

My comments, which I didn't manage to send then as there was an issue with the network! Anyway, instead of going through Klook.com, which we did, you can also buy direct from TNK Travel. Their website is https://www.tnktravel.com/. 

How the hell did he manage to balance himself...?

Street view that would gradually give way to more buildings as we returned back to urbanized area of HCMC. At this time, it was only 1.00pm and I think this half day tour was just right; at least we can still provision for more activities without feeling overly tired. 

Cuchi Petro - when I used to drive, I loved to check out the petrol pricing in overseas countries so that we can lament about the high petrol prices we had to fork out in Singapore. p.s. we are not even in top ten; most expensive is in Hong Kong although Singapore is most expensive in Southeast Asia.

Looming ahead of us would be HCMC's tallest building; Landmark 81, an 81-storey building that stands at 461.2-metre high! Sadly, we didn't manage to check out the observatory deck there this time.

Pretty heavy traffic but no jam. To say the truth, I didn't think we encounter any jam at all in the seven days we were at HCMC. Maybe because there were just a lot more motorbikes than cars. 

According to Kim, the population of motorbikes stands at 7.5 million! In comparison, Singapore has only 142,000 (a mere 2%)! 

I know this was near the airport but I couldn't find any information about this. Knowing that google has an image search function, my attempts still failed to identify the location and reveal more information about this building.

Another view of the tall trees lining the roads.

Roundabout with a clock tower.

Guess where is this? We are already in district one of HCMC. This building was the Independence Palace that we walked past on day two of our trip! 

And nearby would be the The Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon, which had been on renovation for so long; the Great Kon had only seen it "unmasked" once, on his first visit to HCMC.

What tree is this?! 

So leafy! 

A statue in the middle of a roundabout. This shall be our end point for the tour. As part of the package, we should be sent back to our hotel but this tour didn't have lunch included and we were famished! Hence, we requested for disembarkation near this highly rated bahn mi stall; Bánh Mì Huynh Hoa! 

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Purchased From?

Klook.com

Click here for my 6 Days Itinerary in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) - Pearl of the Far East @ Vietnam

First Time Firing a Gun - An AK47 @ National Defence Sport Shooting Range in Ho Chi Minh City [Vietnam]

I am a true blue Singaporean and like all Singaporean males, I had to go through national service. However, unlike most of them, I had never fired a gun before. 

Therefore, you can imagine my excitement when I was brought to a shooting range, which was part of our half day tour to Cu Chi Tunnels at Ho Chi Minh City!  

Entrance was like going into a bunker! 

A very suitable setting for the activity.

Passage was wide and the walls appeared to have a fresh coat of paint. To play up the atmosphere, I thought they should have narrow passages which would require us to crouch, just like those legendary ones at Cu Chi Tunnels.

Passed the tunnel to find this relatively homely setting. 

It would have looked lovely as the entry for a quaint, little cafe.

Registering for the type of guns we would want to fire from, and the number of bullets. You are charged based on the number of bullets and it can range from 40,000 Dong to 60,000 Dong (between S$2.30 - S$3.50) each! Wars are expensive! 

Minimum to fire would be five bullets.

I purchased ten which was the norm.

Type of guns to choose from; K63, AK47, RPK, RPD, M16, K54, M60, M30, Garand, Carbine, PKMS. Don't ask me the differences; in games like Left 4 Dead 2, I always go for the more well known AK47 or M16.

Memorabilia; for Singaporeans, do note that we are not allowed to bring bullets back to our little red dot, even if they had been fired. To put it in better context, even fake bullets are disallowed back into our safe haven.

Got our shooting ear muffs and stepped out into the shooting range. A guy was firing the gun and boy I didn't know the noise can be so deafening! Every shot and it felt that the ground was trembling! How did those soldiers endure such noise on the war fields?! My heart goes out to Ukraine. :( 

The range was gated to prevent crazy people from running out, and getting shot. It may seem impossible but when you have families with toddlers; always good to play safe and have some measures in place. 

Guns were also fixed to the top of the wall so that rogue gunners wouldn't be able to move, point and fire the guns at people standing behind them. Imagine someone who got triggered and decided to kill all his/her travel companions! 

My friend talking his first shot! 

A true marksman would be able to hit the black areas. Given that it's my first time holding and firing a gun, I wonder if I have the talent to be a marksman. We shall find out shortly. 

The Great Kon having his turn.

I needed to observe first.

Staff member replacing the bullets in the cartridge. If only we can have the opportunity to put them, like in the movies. It's okay, better leave them to the professionals, in case our wrong placement resulted in misfire.

Empty boxes of bullets! 

Spent bullets; just wondering if we could just take them or they would be repurposed. Knowing I can't bring back to Singapore means I didn't even bother to ask.

My turn! 

Clearly an amateur; or maybe I was too short. It was fun even though I was clearly not aiming and just enjoyed firing the AK47 for that booming noise after pulling the trigger! Well, at least I managed to hit the hill. 

Close-up of the AK47. To be honest, not much of a special feeling.

I think it would be more enjoyable if I can use a sniper rifle though. 

Bullet and cartridge on the ground!  

Video that was kindly taken by my friend to showcase my first time firing a gun! What else should I strike off my bucket list? Maybe paragliding at Hanoi?

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Part of the Củ Chi Tunnels Half Day Tour

Purchased from Klook.com 

Price List for the Guns

As above. 

Click here for my 6 Days Itinerary in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) - Pearl of the Far East @ Vietnam