David in the Tunnel

DWinTunnel, originally uploaded by davethetemp.

I could duck-walk through these and would have been much more comfortable on my hands and knees. Barb preferred to stay above ground. They didn't even charge extra for the bats. The wildest part though was after crawling through the hospital and command centre for the Vietcong guerillas, I popped out of the ground in front of a fridge of ice-cold Pepsi.

Entrance to Vietcong Tunnel in Cu Chi

TunnelEntrance, originally uploaded by davethetemp.

250 Kilometers of tunnel were dug in 20 years of fighting the French and Americans. They have since built wider entrances to allow large westerners like me the opportunity to go in for a peek

Buddha with One Thousand Arms

The most famous image of Buddha in Vietnam. As you approach the side, you see that the back of the figure is indeed hundreds of arms...

Where Buddhism was first introduced in Vietnam

Still very active and a many young boys study here

More Views From the Road

On our way to a historic temple we passed miles of brickworks. And more farming of course...

Visit to a home for disadvantaged children

This was a school that cared for orphans, children with AIDS, autism, deafness, you name it. We visited to speak to the manager of the school and see how their social welfare system was coping with the challenges of economic liberalization.

This was a school that cared for orphans, children with AIDS, autism, deafness, you name it. We visited to speak to the manager of the school and see how their social welfare system was coping with the challenges of economic liberalization.

Views of the countryside by bus

Travelling to a social welfare agency, we drove out of Hanoi and 40 km into the countryside (which took 2 hours on very bumpy roads). Here, it's mostly rice fields with towns being very small (and very tall) along the river system.