Chu Chi Tunnels II

Dear Readers,

I apologize for fooling you about the dimensions of the tunnel network in the last post. The impression conveyed is much too spacey. In reality it was much smaller, hot, sticky, humid and in general not such a wonderful experience.
However, here are some more pictures of me helping to improve the entertaining quality of the local outdoor museum.

Have a nice day,

Mat

good luck for your exams

Dear friends in St.Gallen,

most of you will be busy these days with exams. I wish you all the best!
Do not forget to roll up your shades every now and then.

All the success in the world,

Mat

Chu Chi Tunnels I

Dear friends and family,

I hope you are comfortably seated in your ergonomic armchairs when you are reading this post. The Vietcong, guerrilla force in the Vietnam war/conflict had to crouch frequently in rather uncomfortable positions for us white, spoiled tourists in the (by distance, not by room provided) largest tunnel network in the world (?). We visited the Chu Chi tunnels on a half day trip from Saigon, learning about what all happened in the tunnels, from cooking, bathing and marrying to conferences, fights and flooding. Above, one of the more uncomfortable places in the network, prepared for noisy enemies wanting to get into the tunnels. More difficult to notice in the left picture are the air channels that come up every 30 meters in the tunnel network, mostly disguised as harmless grass on the top.

Hope you stay on top of your work as well,

All the best until soon,

Mat

local craftsmen shop

Dear Readers,

I hope you woke up to a nice new Monday morning.
The Vietnam stories in Saigon continues: On our way to the Chu Chi tunnels (see tomorrow) we stopped at this manufacturing plant that produces some of the finest arts out of wood, paint and egg shells. The picture on the left is made up out of smallest egg shell particles, aligned to produce the conveyed impression and lots of egg shell powder sprinkled over it to blur the big mistakes :-)

Hope you can avoid big mistakes,

your Mat

Reunification Palace in Saigon

Liebe Leser,

gestärkt vom Seafood deluxe lunch ging unsere Sightseeing tour weiter. Im Wiedervereinigungspalast wurden wir sehr stark an die ehemaligen Ostblockstaaten errinnert. Der ein oder andere leicht angestaubte Repräsen-tationssaal wurde sicherlich schon länger nicht mehr gebucht. Im Keller gab es dann noch Bunker, wie es sich für einen vietnamesischen Palast gehört.



Euch einen schönen Samstag,

Euer Matti

Sumptious Seafood Lunch

My dear Readers,

I hope you all are approaching a wonderful weekend. Remember the lunch that I told you Joni took us out for? Well, this is it. It was seafood all the way through, mussles, shells, fish, prawns, wow! Please take a special look at the snails in coconut milk in the last picture. The way to eat them is depicted in the middle to the left, sucking out the slimy, juicy snail from one end. If you lift your head just a little so that gravity helps you, it is a little bit easier :-)

Keep your heads up,

Mat

Meeting Joni on day 2

Dear family and friends,

on our second day in Saigon we met our classmate Joni in her university home town. She showed us the quieter and more relaxing places to visit and also took us out for lunch. Without her help it would have been much more difficult to locate the new office of Lion-Air where we intended to book the trip back to Singapore for Susan. Unfortunately the information on the web was long outdated...




I hope none of you will ever be outdated,

Cheers,

Mat