TIẾNG ANH THUYẾT MINH TOUR CỦ CHI TUNNELS
***Một số điều lưu ý***
Củ Chi là 1 huyện thuộc HCMC. Có hai điểm để lựa chọn tham quan địa đạo được đặt tên là Bến Dược và Bến Đình.
Bến Dược được cải tạo, thiết kế gần giống với thực tế nhất phù hợp cho khách Việt Nam tham quan vì có 1 đền thờ những chiến sỹ trận vong nhưng thời gian tham quan lâu hơn, và đoạn đường di chuyển xa hơn từ trung tâm HCMC (khoảng 60km theo googlemaps.com). Thời gian di chuyển khoảng 2 tiếng, tham quan khoảng 2 tiếng (nếu không bỏ sót điểm nào). Nhưng thông thường chỉ tham quan khu địa đạo – không tham quan khu Làng mạc mô hình và đền thờ. Khu bắn súng nằm riêng biệt so với khu tham quan – nên HDV phải hỏi khách có muốn bắn súng không và nói rõ giá tiền mua đạn thật.
Do việc thăm quan địa đạo Bến Dược khó khăn, tốn nhiều thời gian di chuyển và do nhu cầu khách quốc tế đến tìm hiểu ngày càng tăng, địa đạo Bến Đình vì thế đã được cải tạo và thiết kế thêm. Khoảng cách từ HCMC khoảng 45km (theo googlemaps.com),thời gian di chuyển khoảng 1.5 tiếng và tham quan trong khoảng 1.5 tiếng. Hầu như 100% các công ty du lịch quốc tế đều lựa chọn Bến Đình vì nhiều lý do. Lý do quan trọng nhất là chỉ có tham quan Bến Đình, khách mới còn thời gian tham quan tiếp city chiều hoặc kết nối tham quan Tòa Thánh Tây Ninh hoặc tiếp tục về miền Tây. Nếu chọn Bến Dược thì tổng thời gian di chuyển và tham quan đã hết ⅔ ngày (nếu tính 8tiếng/ngày).
Nếu khách có thắc mắc tại sao điểm tham quan không giống như khách xem trên mạng thì HDV có thể giải thích lý do này.
Bài thuyết minh bên dưới được thực hiện đối với khách đoàn châu Âu. Đa số khách Châu Á không thích nghe nhiều mà họ chỉ thích được nhìn thấy và đặc biệt thích chui hầm ở địa đạo. Cái họ quan tâm là được chui xuống địa đạo, chụp hình và bắn súng. HDV vì thế hãy biết cách “bắt mạch” để hiểu khách cần gì thông qua 15 phút đầu tiên của việc trò chuyện giao lưu.
Chúng ta chỉ đề cập đến những sự thật lịch sử, không nói điều bất lợi ảnh hưởng tiêu cực đến uy tín của đất nước. Lịch sử vẫn mãi là lịch sử. Đúng sai chúng ta không có quyền phê phán vì không thể nào thay đổi được. Chúng ta không phê phán bất cứ phe nào dù cho có đọc có nghe bất cứ tiêu cực gì ở bất cứ nguồn nào.
Trong tiếng Anh, Hochiminh là tên Thành Phố, còn Hồ Chí Minh là tên người (Bác Hồ) cũng như Vietnam, Saigon phải được ghi liền nhau vì là tên địa danh.
——————————————————————————————————-
***Một số vật dụng cần chuẩn bị (theo gợi ý của tác giả)***
Bản đồ du lịch Việt Nam (có chú giải thật cụ thể)
Bản đồ địa lý của huyện Củ Chi.
Sơ đồ cấu tạo của địa đạo Củ Chi
Khăn giấy ướt để cho khách lau tay, mặt sau khi trải nghiệm dưới lòng đất.
Thuốc xịt muỗi, băng keo cá nhân, bông băng thuốc đỏ, cồn khử trùng đề phòng khách bị thương khi chui hầm. Khách nước ngoài “không dám” uống thuốc do người lạ đưa cho khi không có sự chỉ định của Bác Sĩ nên bạn không cần mang theo thuốc uống. Bạn cũng tránh việc này để giảm bớt trách nhiệm nặng nề cho mình vì lỡ có gì xảy ra thì sẽ vô cùng rắc rối vì “liên quan đến yếu tố nước ngoài”.
Không nên dùng loa tay có âm thanh lớn vì điều này cực kỳ tối kỵ ở các điểm tham quan công cộng, gây ra sự khó chịu cho những HDV và các đoàn khách khác.
Hình ảnh của các nhân vật quan trọng : Hồ Chí Minh, 4 tổng thống của Miền Nam Cộng Hoà, Hoà Thượng Thích Quảng Đức tự thiêu, Đại tướng Võ Nguyên Giáp, 5 vị Tổng thống Mỹ trong thời kỳ chiến tranh Việt Nam (1945-1975 Harry Truman, Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon).
——————————————————————————————————————–
***TRÌNH TỰ THUYẾT MINH CHO TOUR CỦ CHI***
Mặc định đây là lần đầu gặp nhau giữa HDV với khách và mặc định đây là đoàn lớn HDV cầm micro thuyết minh. Ngay sau khi xe lăn bánh, HDV thực hiện bài chào đoàn, giới thiệu và xác nhận lịch trình tour, trò chuyện giao lưu để hiểu nhau hơn (đã được đề cập trước đó) Tiếp theo, HDV giới thiệu sơ nét về lịch sử hình thành đất nước Việt Nam. Nên nhớ chỉ cần lướt qua những sự kiện quan trọng. Khách quốc tế không có nhu cầu và hứng thú với những Lạc Long Quân, Âu Cơ, Hồng Bàng, Hai Bà Trưng, và Ngô Quyền.
Sau đó, HDV mới xoáy sâu vào nội dung chiến tranh Việt Nam từ 1945 đến 1975 và những thông tin thú vị về địa đạo Củ Chi.
——————————————————————————————————–
Sau đây là bài thuyết minh hoàn chỉnh sau khi đã xong các bước chào đoàn, xác nhận chương trình tour và trò chuyện tán gẫu.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Now we are going to visit the Cuchi tunnels – a great network of underground complex dug by hands = manually dug by Vietcong soldiers– local troops of the Communist Regime (chế độ Cộng sản) in the south during the Vietnam war against American government and South Vietnam.. In order to understand this historical site deeply, we should go back to the early history of Vietnam a little bit.
This is the map of Vietnam. As you can see, it has the shape of the letter S in the English alphabet. It is very hard and complicated to talk about the very early Vietnamese territory before Christ, so I’m going to make it short and simple for you to understand. Actually, the Vietnamese people today originated from a small tribe connected to Chinese roots but we were an independent tribe.
Our very first territory included a big part of south China today until Thanh Hoa province of Vietnam today (hinhanhvietnam.com)
The central part of Vietnam (from Thanh Hoa to BinhThuan) was another country called Champa). The southern part (from Saigon to Mekong Delta) was a part of Funan. Funan (Phù Nam) was a huge country including a part of Thailand, a part of Cambodia and a part of Vietnam today. (hinhanhvietnam.com)
By the 10th century, Funan was invaded by Champa and divided into two countries called “Thuy Chan Lap or lower Chenla now and a part of it is Mekong Delta today” and Luc Chan Lap or Upper Chenla now a part of Cambodia.
By 1600s :Champa belonged to Vietnam for different reasons.
By 1658 : Mekong Delta was under Vietnam’s supervision.
By 1858 the French invaded Vietnam via Danang port. One year later they attacked Gia Dinh (Gia Dinh was a big area including Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Binh Phuoc, Hochiminh city and Long An province today). With their power and modern weapons, the Nguyen dynasty had to accept French supervision.
From this time we had 96 years under the control of the French colonialist. During this period, a lot of Vietnamese leaders coming from the peasantry class (giai cấp nông dân) gathered their forces – with simple weapons like bamboos, self made guns and swords to fight the French for independence, but all of them failed. Many leaders and supporters had to be beheaded or exiled (bị chém đầu hoặc lưu đày) by French governors. The reason why they failed was that they had no theory to set goals, no party to lead them to the right way and no well trained soldiers. The fighting at that time was like sand in the desert without any water or cement to connect for stronger unity.
Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890 in an educated family during the period of French supervision. As a teenager, he understood what he was going to do next. In 1911 at the age of 21, Ho Chi Minh, naming himself Nguyen Van Ba left Vietnam from Saigon on a French boat as a cook assistant. He wanted to see how the world was like then to come back for the country’s independence.
He went to different countries like The United States, France, Russia, Germany, China and some nations in Africa. Wherever he arrived, he realized that every country was the same, having two classes : one controlling the other.
From 1920s till 1940s, HochiMInh used a lot of names –most famous Nguyen Ai Quoc- to write lots of articles against the French in Indochina and expressing his ideas of asking for independence for Vietnam and other colonies. He was a fighter in the newspaper and his weapon was a strong pen.
In 1930, he founded the Indochinese Communist Party (Đảng cộng sản Đông Dương) in China and helped send young men from Hanoi for training about communism. The theories of the Party were from Marxism and Leninism (now in every government office, there are always faces of Karl Max, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh president). These well- trained staff then came back to Hanoi and trained other soldiers called Viet Minh.
The second world war (chiến tranh thế giới thứ hai) took place in 1939 and the Japanese arrived Vietnam in the 1940s. Japan kicked France off (hất cẳng ra khỏi) Vietnam and controlled Vietnam for a short time. At that time Ho chi minh had come back to Hanoi but he still stayed in a secret jungle, north west of Hanoi.
Look at this picture. This is Harry Truman, the 33rd president of the US after Roosevelt. He was the one who ordered two atomic bombs (bom nguyên tử) down on 2 important cities of Japan Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing more than 200.000 people. This event made the Japanese surrender unconditionally in August 1945
At this time, Hanoi was free with no owner. Ho Chi Minh took this opportunity to get out of the jungle.
On Sept 2nd 1945, Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence (bảng tuyên ngôn độc lập) and founded Vietnam Democratic Republic (Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cộng hoà) This day was then chosen as our country’s Independence Day.
The French with support from the US came back to Saigon. Hanoi was in the hands of Ho Chi Minh president. I would like you to imagine this way : “ before 1945 Ho Chi Minh was in a secret jungle and he was fighting with his pen in newspapers – politial battlefields. But now he had enough conditions : a government, a communist party, and a well trained force of Vietminh soldiers ready to fight. So now he could say to the French : Hey I want to fight you on the real battlefields”.
The period from 1945 to 1954 was called “first Indochina war” (Chiến tranh Đông Dương lần thứ nhất) or France-Resistance War
On May 7th 1954, The Vietnam’s Democratic Republic defeated France in Dien Bien Phu city of north west Hanoi. The French surrendered and the Geneva Accords was signed in Switzerland. There were 9 countries involved in the meeting of ceasefire (hội nghị ngừng chiến) : USA, Britain, France, Russia, China, Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Do any of you know this gentleman? (show tấm hình đại tướng Võ Nguyên Giáp). He’s Vo Nguyen Giap, the leader of Dien Bien Phu victory against the French. The victory of Dien Bien Phu had a great impact on the actions of French colonies, encouraging them to stand up for their countries’ independence. Vo Nguyen Giap was then listed among the 10 best commanders in the world of all times compared to AlexanDros Great King, Napoleon and Genghis Khan (Thành Cát Tư Hãn).
South Vietnam at that time was controlled by the Ngo family who used to support the French and had very good relations with French governors.
The period from 1954 to 1975 was called the “second Indochina war” or Vietnam WAR.
Please look at this photo. This is Ngo Dinh Diem, the first puppet president of South Vietnam. He was raised Catholic in a highly educated family. He was chosen to be the Prime Minister of South Vietnam. In 1955, there should have been an election (1 cấu trúc chỉ 1 sự tiếc nuối trong quá khứ – Lẻ ra nó đã xaỷ ra nhưng thực tế lại không xảy ra) to unify the 2 parts of Vietnam into one. Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem were 2 candidates for president. Ngo Dinh Diem knew that he would lose the election. So then thanks to the support from the US, he declared himself to become the first President of South Vietnam. The US hoped that he would follow whatever was beneficial for them. However, later on he became so independent and wanted to get rid of the American control. He gave power of the country to his brothers and wanted to make South Vietnam become a family owned regime (chế độ gia đình trị).
Look at this photo. This is Thich Quang Duc monk born in 1897 in Hue City – the centre of Vietnam and where the last Nguyen dynasty citadel was located. Thich Quang Duc fired himself on June 11th 1963 in a corner of a Saigon crossroad (now CMT8 and Nguyen DinhChieu) to protest Diem’s conservative policies that were against Buddhists.
In November 1963, Diem and Nhu (Diem’s brother) were assassinated in Saigon. The same thing happened to the US president John Kennedy this year.
Look at this photo. This is the 2nd president of south Vietnam , Nguyen Van Thieu from 1965 to April 21st 1975. This president also followed Diem’s policy that Viet Cong should be “out of the law – better kill innocents than miss them. (Đặt Việt Cộng ngoài vòng pháp luật, thà giết lầm hơn bỏ sót).
This photo shows the 3rd president of South Vietnam Tran Van Huong (April 22nd to April 28th 1975). He was president for only 1 week.
The last president of south Vietnam is Duong Van Minh, only 2 days April 29th – 30th 1975. It was him that gave the order to assassinate Ngo Dinh Diem.
In the morning of April 30th 1975, 2 Russian tanks of Viet Minh numbered 390 and 843 hit the gate of Independence Palace of Saigon. South Vietnam surrendered to the North and Duong Van Minh was taken by a Jeep car from the Palace to Saigon Radio station to have a speech of surrender. The war ended by this moment.
Ở trên là tổng quan về 2 cuộc chiến tranh Đông Dương, các bạn đọc thật kỹ để nắm rõ chứ không nhất thiết phải nói hết từng câu chữ như thế. Tùy vào từng kiểu khách mà mình có cách thuyết minh hoặc trò chuyện sáng tạo khác nhau.
PHần sau đây liên quan đến Củ Chi tunnels.
Now I would like to relate to Cu Chi tunnels a bit. Cu chi is one of 24 districts of HCMC and is about 45km away from Saigon city centre. During the war with the Americans, Cu Chi was a liberated area covering 150 square km.
First of all, I want to mention the reasons why Cu Chi was chosen for digging the tunnels. There are a few following reasons:
- First, Cu Chi is an important part and the end of Ho Chi Minh trails. This trail system was built from 1959 to 1975 through the Trường Sơn mountain range for the purpose of transporting weapons, ammunition, medicines and other stuff from North Vietnam to Vietcong- local troops in the south.
- Second, Cu Chi land is about 15-20m higher than sea level, so it is a perfect place to dig the tunnel.
- Third, The soil in Cu Chi is mostly clay and a bit sandy, so it is easy to dig and camouflage (nguỵ trang).
- Last but not least, Cu Chi is near Saigon city which was the capital of south Vietnam (ARVN). Then it is more convenient for the Vietcong to attack this city and cooperate with the northern troops Vietminh. Once Saigon failed, the whole South Vietnam would fall over.
The history of Cu Chi tunnels. Have you wondered why we have the tunnels and who created them?
The idea of digging the tunnel was from a farmer in Cu Chi named Nguyễn Văn Bộ during the First Indochina war. His initial purpose was just to create a shelter for his family away from the French Bombing Operations, usually under the bedroom or rice storage (bồ lúa). This bomb shelter was a vertical bunker(hầm thẳng đứng) straight down in the ground with the length, width and depth of about 2 meters. So almost every family had one like that.
In 1954, thanks to the Dien Bien Phu victory, North Vietnam pushed the French into the Geneva Accords like I just said prior (mới nói lúc nãy). In this meeting, they decided to divide Vietnam into 2 countries, using the 17th parallel (vỹ tuyến) through Ben Hai river of Quang Tri province as the border. (show the map).
One of the most important agreements the two countries made was that North Vietnam had to withdraw/take all Viet Minh soldiers back to Hanoi. However, Ho Chi Minh left 10.000 Viet Minh soldiers in secret jungles of the south. Their mission at that time was to gather as many farmers as possible in the south to create local troops that were always ready to cooperate with northern Vietminh troops.
Now, I like you to get to know these common names and military terms (thuật ngữ quân đội)
Viet Minh : This is the short form of VIỆT NAM CÁCH MẠNG ĐỒNG MINH HỘI – the Association of Vietnamese revolutionary allied Forces. This force was established by Ho Chi Minh on May 19th 1941 in the northern Vietnam. I want to make it more simple, “this is the well trained force of Communist soldiers led by Hồ Chí Minh president in the north and they stayed mostly in north Vietnam”. (wikipedia)
Viet Cong or VC: this name was given by the South Vietnam government and the US to indicate Vietnamese Communist soldiers. In other words, they were the southerners but they followed Communist in north and fought against South Vietnam. Both Vietminh and Vietcong were communist soldiers but Vietminh were in the north and Vietcong were in the south of Vietnam. (wikipedia). To make it clear, Vietcong or VC is the short form of Việt Nam and Cộng Sản, meaning Vietnamese Communist.
GI: GI stands for ( viết tắt của, nghĩa là, thường dùng để giải thích các chữ viết tắt) Government Issue named by the US government. The reason for this name was that the whole US government was related to and concerned about the war in Vietnam. So everything related to the war in Vietnam was named GI. For example, GI tanks, GI soldiers, GI helicopters or only GI.(wikipedia)
ARVN (đọc là a vin) : the Army of Republic Vietnam pronounced “ARVIN”. This force was trained and subsidized by the US.
Indochina :The peninsula between China and India and is a group of 3 countries: Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Vietnam is the biggest and strongest. Saigon used to be the capital of Indochina.
So how could Vietcong soldiers hide themselves from the GI?
There were many ways to stay secret for VC soldiers. One of the best ways was to run into the jungle and to stay together as a strong unit waiting for orders/demands from the North.
Another way was that they developed the tunnel system by connecting the previous “bomb shelters” together. Actually, this was prepared by the 1950s. Until the 1970s, Vietcong had built the tunnel system of approximately 250km around Cu Chi district.
Now I’ll tell you about the tunnel structure. The whole system was made in 3 levels.
(in và giơ cao hình ảnh về cấu trúc địa đạo cho tất cả khách đều thấy. Tốt hơn hết, HVD in mỗi khách 1 tấm A4, dễ dàng thuyết minh hơn).
The tunnel system was made in 3 levels.
The first level is around 3m. This is where Vietcong could move along and come up to the ground for fighting. You can see there are bunkers in this level like dining bunker, kitchen bunker, sleeping bunker, storage bunker and fighting bunker.
The second level is around 6 meters. This is mostly for moving and they were made in small sizes which were suitable for Vietnamese soldiers’ bodies but they were a big barrier for American soldiers.
The third level is sometimes 8, 10 and 12 meters. This is the safest level where everybody could stay safe from the bombs. There were even hospitals for light injured soldiers (binh lính bị thương nhẹ).
Between the levels, there were staircases by clay or by wood to move up and down.
You will learn more about this when we are inside the tunnels.
There were about 18.000 people in Cu Chi getting involved (liên quan đến, bị liên đới) in the tunnel war. More than 10.000 lived inside directly for almost 20 years.
Remember that before 1965, there were no US combat soldiers (lính chiến đấu) in Vietnam yet. There were only about 16.000 American military experts, spies and government staff.
The tunnel system was discovered by GI in 1966. Right after that, Đồng Dù base was set up right on Cu Chi land by the 25th infantry division (đại đội lục quân 25) from the US to control Cu Chi.
After discovering this secret tunnel, GI had created 5 tactics/ways (chiến thuật) to fight with VC by lots of operations (chiến dịch-hành quân). Can you guess what ways the US had used?
5 TACTICS CREATED AND USED BY THE US SOLDIERS AGAINST TUNNEL SOLDIERS
- Crimp operation in January 1966. GI used helicopters with tanks full of water and poured them on the Cuchi surface. They hoped that the water could flush the tunnels away and VC had to come up. But no!!! The tunnel system was made in a very smart way of 3 levels. There was a wooden board to connect the levels. Also the soil inside could “swallow” the water. According to the GI’s report, they destroyed only 70m of the tunnels. And VC were happy because they had a free shower.
- Cedar Falls Operation in 1967. I used tunnel rats (đội quân chuột cống). These were not real rats but they were small size American, Australian, Korean or Thai soldiers. Their mission was to get inside the tunnel to report what they had seen. However, they did not know that there were traps like bamboo spikes (chông tre vót nhọn) or grenades (lựu đạn) or mines (mìn) everywhere inside. A lot of American allied soldiers had lost their lives when coming down. So everybody was scared and never wanted to come back.
- German shepherd dogs. About 600 well – trained German shepherd dogs (chó Bẹt Giê) were released on Cu chi land to detect where VC were hiding. Once the entrances were found, GI would drop grenades, gases and mines through the entrances. For this tactic, VC had 3 ways of reaction:
o First they shot the dogs and ate them. So GI gave food to their enemy by accident (một cách tình cờ) – Đây là nội dung tế nhị nói về việc giết chóc và ăn thịt chó – nếu trên xe có trẻ em và người yêu động vật, bảo vệ động vật, HDV nên khéo léo tránh nhắc đến.
o Second, they mixed the powder of chilli and pepper, then spread it everywhere on Cu Chi land so that the dogs lost their senses.
o Third, VC soldiers who stayed nearest to the surface would wear and use the same things as the GI soldiers like perfumes, clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste and shampoos so that the dogs would feel those were their owners.
- American grass (CỎ MỸ – không phải thuốc phiện mà là 1 loại cỏ lính Mỹ dùng nên VC gọi là cỏ Mỹ). In the rainy season, GI dropped on Cu Chi land a kind of seed (hạt giống). After a month, the grass grew up to 1-2m. In the dry season, the grass would be fired and VC had to come up and run away. From the footprints (dấu chân) left on the ashes (tàn tro), GI would follow to the hiding places of VC. However, VC had a very smart reaction. We will see that in the forest later.
- Last but not least, GI used machines and bulldozers (máy xúc) to stir up (trộn lên, xới lên như kiểu xào đồ ăn) the tunnels so that they could destroy the hiding places of VC. But Cu chi people were never afraid. They shot back at the machines ; they ran away to another hiding place and came back a few days later – rebuilt the parts of tunnels that were destroyed. GI could never anticipate how deep the tunnels were, so they could not reach the last level of 10-12meters along 250km length.
Trên đây là những gì hướng dẫn thuyết minh trên xe từ trung tâm HCMC đến Củ Chi để cho khách hình dung về địa đạo như thế nào. Để đến khi dẫn khách vào trong địa đạo tham quan từng điểm trong đó, HDV lại thuyết minh từng điểm một, kết hợp với hiểu biết khi ở trên xe thì khách mới có thể hiểu hết giá trị lịch sử của khu địa đạo Củ Chi.
——————————————————————————————————–
Tuy nhiên các bạn nên nhớ “Cách thuyết minh ở trên chỉ nên được dùng đối với đoàn lớn, hay nói cách khác là khi cầm MIC, còn đi khách lẻ hay nói cách khác là xe 7chổ (chỉ 1-4 khách) là nhóm gia đình thì không nên dùng cách trên. Mà nên thuyết minh theo kiểu trò chuyện, gợi mở, hỏi qua hỏi lại, khơi sự tò mò, hứng thú đối với khách”.
Sau đây là những kiến thức mà HDV không nên thuyết minh trên xe, để dành khi khách hỏi trên đường đi. Nếu HDV thuyết minh hết tất tần tật, khách không có gì để hỏi thì làm cho sự giao tiếp chỉ có 1 chiều. Nếu khách không hỏi, HDV hãy hỏi khách và nhờ khách cho mình suy đoán. Chỉ có như vậy, mới kích thích sự tò mò cho khách, và cũng giúp HDV đỡ mệt hơn.
Some common questions tourists usually ask about Cuchi tunnels.
Question : How could they go to the toilets there?
Answer : Good question! Well, when there is a will, there is a way (Nghĩa gốc là Có chí thì nên). They took advantage of (tận dụng) broken bombshells (vỏ bom vỡ) to contain their pee and poop. They did this in the daytime inside the ground and came up in the evening to release them.
——————————————————————————————————–
Question : How could they have enough air to breathe?
A: They had bamboo pipes connecting from their bunkers to the ground. The exits should always be in the natural pushes or termite mounds.
——————————————————————————————————–
Question : How did they cook?
Answer : They had a very smart way to deal with this. There was one famous soldier named Hoàng Cầm, who was also a poet, creating a so-called (cái được gọi là…) SMOKELESS KITCHEN. They cooked right here but the smoke came along the hidden chimney in the ground and came up to the sky at an exit far away from the kitchen. The exit should be at natural pushes so they could look real. They cooked only Once or Twice a day, early in the morning or late in the afternoon so the smoke could stay on the ground as mist from nature. They had a special self made device called “Smoke hiding bunker” (Hầm giấu khói). The smoke you see now is from yesterday because it was kept and processed in the bunker to make it less.
——————————————————————————————————-
Question : How could they move the soil out of the tunnels?
Answer : They created 4 ways to move the soil out of the tunnels. First, they moved to Saigon river. Second, they moved to the rice fields as fertilizers. Third, they filled up the bomb craters (hố bom). And fourth, they created termite mounds (ụ mối) that look really real and there were actually real termites.
——————————————————————————————————–
Question : What did they use to dig the tunnels?
Answer : They used the bombshells that were left by the French in the First Indochina war and bamboo baskets to carry soil out of the tunnels.
——————————————————————————————————-
Question : Do I have to crawl into the tunnels? -Khách hỏi câu này là vì khách cứ nghĩ rằng vào tham quan khu này là buộc phải chui hầm.Cho nên HDV phải giải thích rõ ngay khi trên xe rằng việc chui hầm là tuỳ khách nhé.
Answer : No. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s optional. We will mostly walk on the surface to visit some interesting spots. There are some parts of the tunnels that were made larger for tourists to experience as a VC soldier.
——————————————————————————————————-
Question : Can I fit the tunnels? – 1 số khách quá mập- câu này khá tế nhị, nếu HDV trả lời không khéo sẽ bị mắc lỗi kỳ thị ngoại hình. Vì vậy câu trả lời hay nhất là: (Nhớ nói riêng với khách này, chứ không cầm mic nói to cho cả đoàn nghe)
Answer : Please wait until we get there. I will talk to the people in charge (những người chuyên trách) inside the place. They will decide.
——————————————————————————————————–
MỘT SỐ TÌNH HUỐNG CÓ THỂ XẢY RA TRÊN ĐƯỜNG ĐI TOUR CỦ CHI
*Khách quá to không thể xuống được nhưng khách vẫn muốn xuống hầm. HDV nên khéo léo cảnh báo – đây là vấn đề nhạy cảm nếu HD ko khéo khách sẽ có cảm giác bị xúc phạm về hình thể. Có thể nói như sau và buộc phải nói riêng với khách đó. I am really happy that you like our tourist attraction and you like to experience the tunnels. Please understand that I just want to care for you, I’m not body shaming. It has already happened many times before that some tourists can’t get up and it was so hard to get them up. I will take you to the soldier there and ask him if you are allowed to go down or not. Tốt hơn hết là nếu khách có đi cùng với bạn, vợ/chồng thì HDV nên nói chuyện này với người đó.
*Khách quá già yếu đi chậm và hay mệt mỏi. HDV phải nói rõ ngay từ trên xe là đoạn đường đi bộ bao xa, sẽ làm gì, thấy gì, có nghỉ giữa đường không, có nắng không, có muỗi không. Trước khi bắt đầu chuyến tham quan trong địa đạo, HDV nên nói câu này. Before we start to explore this historical site, I would like to tell you some useful information so you can prepare from now. We will walk on the surface under the shady trees in about 1.5 hour. The total distance of the walk is about 1 km. There might be mosquitos inside so you can put on your repellent or spray now. If you can’t stand the heat in some parts, you can bring your hats now. When we’re halfway, we will have a coffee break. Right there, you can have some food and drinks, use the toilets and especially you can shoot real guns with real bullets on your own account (tự trả tiền). After that, we will have a chance to crawl inside the tunnels to experience as a real VC soldier. You don’t have to if you don’t want. The walk is a around way so we don’t repeat the same paths. Nói như vậy để khách có thể hình dung được những gì sắp xảy ra mà tự chuẩn bị cho mình. Ví dụ có khách thấy đường xa quá đi không nổi thì có thể ngồi ở lại trong xe hoặc tại quán cafe gần đó. Tránh trường hợp khách này đi giữa đường mệt quá không muốn đi nữa rồi muốn quay lại hoặc ngồi tại chỗ. Như vậy sẽ ảnh hưởng đến cả đoàn.
*Bị lạc khách giữa đường. HDV nên cung cấp số điện thoại mình cho khách trên xe và bắt buộc phải nhớ mặt và tên khách bằng cách luôn mang theo danh sách khách trong ba lô. Nếu không nhớ hết tất cả khách thì cố gắng nhớ mặt khách theo cặp và theo gia đình. Nếu có thể thì HDV in danh thiếp và cứ mỗi đoàn lại phát cho mỗi khách. Không thì có thể cho số trực tiếp cho khách khi trên xe. Và dặn khách như sau. This is my phone number. Please keep it carefully. In case you get lost, you can just ask any Vietnamese you meet on the way, borrow their phone or have him call my number. I will talk to him and figure out exactly where you are. Then I can instruct you how to meet me.
*Khách trẻ dưới 18 tuổi muốn bắn súng nhưng người của khu địa đạo không cho phép. HDV khéo léo giải thích đây là quy định của khu du lịch, yêu cầu khách tôn trọng. HDV có thể nói câu này. I’m so sorry that you are not allowed to shoot. I wish I could help you but this is the fixed regulation of this historical site. Moreover, it belongs to the Military Forces, so it’s more strict. Let’s come back here again when you are 18.
*Khách bảo HDV nói sai thông tin, hoặc khách đưa ra các thông tin khác với HDV thì ngay từ đầu HDV nên nói câu này : As a matter of fact, I was born after the war. What I’m telling you is what I’ve learned from very experienced teachers, from older people, from real life and from other tourists who lived through the war time. Maybe what I read is different from what you read because of our political systems. So If you know something different, I’d appreciate it if you can share it with me.”
*Khách hỏi “Bạn có ghét người Mỹ không – Bạn nghĩ gì về người Mỹ . What do you think about American people? Do you like American people?” thì trả lời khéo léo như sau: “You know what, a lot of tourists ask me this question and it’s a bit sensitive but I’m okay with this. What I’m going to tell you is what the majority of the Vietnamese feel about the Americans today. Well, I was born after the war and I didn’t witness the sorrows of war but I understand how horrible it was. I learned great lessons from my grandmother “our eyes are designed in the front, not at the back. So just keep looking forward. Don’t turn back! Otherwise you will hurt yourself. History is history. It’s impossible to change it. Let bygone be bygone (Cái gì qua cho qua đi). It’s really hard to FORGET but It’s okay to FORGIVE. The Vietnamese in general are very forgiving and easy going. If we keep hatred in our heart, it is us that hurt ourselves. So we’re ready to be friends with anybody coming to our country with friendliness. And we’re also ready to fight anybody coming with aggression. It doesn’t matter where you come from, as long as you are friendly and respect our country, then that’s fine”.
