Rubber Tree Lunch

After the morning shopping and drive around Saigon, our guide took us out to the tunnels. The tunnels are outside the city 30 kilometers or so to the Northwest. The further we got from Saigon, the narrower the streets became and the sparser the houses. Half way to the tunnels the region was almost completely agricultural. Small farms lined the road. Eventually the farms gave way to large groves of trees, the likes we had never seen before. When we asked what they were he told us ‘rubber trees.’

Chrissy asked if we could stop the car for a picture. Our driver continued a bit further before stopping in the middle of the grove. On both sides of the road for several hundred yards in front and behind the car were rubber trees. We stepped out of the car and Minh began describing the trees and invited us to step across the ditch into the grove. Each tree had a spiral gash tracing up its trunk. Older gashes were blackened with the sap from the healing process. At the bottom of each gash a small stick projected out over a coconut shell directing the rubber sap into the bowl for collection. Minh told us that the bowls would be harvested periodically. We peeled a sample of sap off of the stick and smelled it. It had the consistency of rubber cement and smelled like burned rubber.

As we stood and looked deeper into the forest of trees two little girls came out of nowhere selling rubber tree necklaces made from the seeds of the trees. Their English was good and the necklaces were only a buck each. We bought one from each of the girls and they walked us back to our car. Next to the car Chrissy brushed up against a plant with leaves that fold when touched. Our guide demonstrated the leaves for Chrissy and the little girls did the same with the leaves nearest me. When we left the girls bade us goodbye saying, “See you again!”

Outside the entrance to the Cu Chi tunnels we ate lunch. Our package deal included lunches and breakfasts at the hotels. Chrissy and I were wondering how they would handle our lacto-ova vegetarian request. We feared that they would feed us nothing but eggs, cheese and milk. This first lunch we thought would indicate how other lunches would go.

This first afternoon we ate in a little noodle place next to the tunnels and run by the Vietnamese Army. The restaurant was really just a shack next to a long palm leaf shelter. There were probably ten tables under the palm roof. At one end of the restaurant several people were watching TV, some were on break from their duties as guides for the tunnels. Around the outside and between the tables, hammocks were strung up for the patrons. One or two of the hammocks were filled with people attempting to nap. We sat down for our lunch. There wasn’t a menu so we left it to Minh to order for us. He ordered us a bowl of vegetarion pho or noodle soup and a plate of stir fried noodles vegetables and eggs. Lunch tasted pretty good, but the portions were large and neither of us could finish.

At the end of our meal as we drank the last of our coffees Chrissy saw a cat leap out of the window of the kitchen shack. She drew my attention to the cat that had landed behind some propane tanks at the back of the kitchen as it came into view we could both see that it had just nabbed a mouse from the kitchen. Fortunately or not, we had finished lunch.